Swiss Misses

Steve took Maggie to the park and I'm supposed to be working on getting more things put away. I was doing just that when I received a call from Steve's cell. It wasn't him, though. It seems he dropped his phone in Golden Gate Park and four beautiful Swiss girls found it. They called the last missed call on it, which was from home. They told me where they were and I ran over to get it. I left the house so fast I didn't even think to bring a reward, but they would not hear of waiting for me to go get one. I told them the Swiss were heroes and they liked that quite a bit. Lovely young women and I am very grateful to them.

I'm sure Steve doesn't even know it's gone yet, because he would be completely freaked out and would have started retracing his steps immediately. It would be very very bad if he lost this phone, that's for sure.

Of course he will still have to answer to me for not picking up my call.

And I will insist on a reward.

One Ringy Dingy

It seems almost quaint to have two land phone lines now, since 90% of calls are by cell phone, but we are very quaint folk here. I have considered dropping the fax/business line and putting it all on one. I have not stopped it yet, though, because it is part of our emergency night system for Maggie. There is an extension of the fax line in her room. Our room is upstairs in the front of the house and Maggie’s is downstairs in the back of the house. I cannot hear if there is a problem. The nurse can call the house phone if she or Maggie needs help. The house line rings right next to my husband’s head.

This system works pretty well. The weak link in the chain is my husband. If it rings in the middle of the night, he simply cannot wake up all the way. He sits up and stars at the ringing phone in wonder. Meanwhile I am out of bed and halfway down the stairs to find out the problem. There are times it has been life threatening stuff s and other times that the nurse does not have any more diapers.

Last night the phone rang around 1:00AM. Steve stared curiously and I said loudly, “It’s the phone – push the button.” He handed it to me in a stupor. I was already out of bed adrenaline rushing. Maggie had some trouble keeping her oxygen levels up before I went to bed, so I assumed the worst.

However, it was not the nurse, it was my sister Kate calling from Oakland. The tone in her voice made the adrenaline rush start again. Kate told me she had just received a call from the burglar alarm company for my mom’s house. The alarm was going off signifying someone or something was fiddling with the kitchen window. The protocol is to call my mom and if she does not respond to call the police and Kate, as she is the emergency contact. My mom was not answering the call and the police were enroute to her house. .

Ok. My clothes were on and Tim and I were on our way over there within 5 minutes. My mom lives about 15 minutes from here and at least 30 minutes from Kate, so it made more sense for me to go. Kate told the alarm company to expect us and they tell the cops. That is good. The last thing you need is to surprise two cops investigating a possible break in.

Before we were half way there, Kate called back. My mother finally woke up and called the alarm company. The downpour of yesterday afternoon and her leaking kitchen window caused the alarms to short. I kept going anyway. When we arrived, two cops were just leaving. We went in and checked on my mom who looked sheepish. She said the guy was coming to fix the leaky window this week. Didn’t bother me, though. I would much rather respond to a false alarm than the real thing. It is also good to know that the system works like it is supposed to.

When I returned, my husband was sleeping soundly. One thing I learned last night, it is time to change the phone to my side of the bed.

Who's calling?

I had a baking bee in my bonnet yesterday. Even though it was 85 degrees in San Francisco, I felt the need to bake banana bread and apple cake. It’s autumn, even if it is summer outside. I was up to my elbows in bananas when the phone rang. Naturally. I thought about letting it go to voice mail, Maggie was already home so I knew it wasn’t any emergency involving her. In reality I never do that, every phone call could be that Nigerian lottery I keep hearing about. I wiped off my hands and picked up the phone.

A young girl said simply, “This is Sierra.” I wasn’t sure who that was and for a moment, I thought it was a wrong number. Then it hit me, “Sierra from Maggie’s school?” “Yes, can I talk to her?”

Seems simple enough. One 8th grade girl calling another. Except that is the very first time that has ever happened. No one has ever called Maggie before.

Sierra spends one period a day in Maggie’s classroom. She has some education issues of her own, but she is in every other way a typical 8th grader. She is into clothes and boys and having fun.

The logistics of this were a bit complicated. As you know, Maggie does not speak. Because of the trach tube, she does not make any sound at all. Hence, a phone conversation is a tough thing to pull off. I put the phone to her ear and Sierra started talking. Maggie was laughing her head off, but without the sound, Sierra was not getting any feedback. I told Sierra to hold on and I used the remote phone to listen to what she was saying and held the extension up to Maggie. That defeats the purpose of the teenage girl phone call, having a mom listen in, but we have to adapt. I role-played what Maggie’s responses would be. It was not hard to translate. Maggie was ecstatic.

Sierra asked about Maggie’s weekend and I told her Maggie’s cousin was coming. Since we plan to make tie-dye shirts, we promised to make one for Sierra. There was a pause and she said,
“Maggie, you’re my best friend”

I swallowed hard.

If I were really channeling an 8th grade girl I would probably say something like” Oh, I like Taylor better.” But the role-playing stopped right there. I told her that Maggie thinks Sierra is her best friend too.

The call ended. My heart expanded. Maggie continued to beam.

Sierra ­IS her best friend. Maybe mine too.