My original thought when I conceived this blog was sharing stories of some of the unique and interesting people that I meet while driving. I find it interesting that in last week’s blog, I mentioned how the majority of my riders over the last several weeks have been kind of standard and typical, albeit very nice people. In the last 48 hours, I’ve met two standouts. Let me share their stories.
Yesterday late morning, I rolled up to a house and saw an older gentleman easily in his 60s, but young at heart and very active. He climbed in and quickly told me that that was an appointment he was leaving. He’s worked the majority of his life in the healthcare industry, and now that he’s “retired”, he works in training and spending time with Alzheimer’s patients and their families. He especially focuses specific training with families on how to cope and how to get the most of their time with their loved ones, and also explaining what to expect when he talks with families who have patients that are in the early onset stage.
His name is Mike, and he shared with me that within the last year his wife had urged him not to drive so much anymore, especially at night because his vision isn’t what it once was and he does get anxious and a bit nervous behind the wheel even during daytime hours. He said he started using Uber about five months ago. He loves it and finds it so convenient, he sold his car and now for his work and volunteering he just Ubers around town. In fact, I was taking him from the northern side of town all the way to deep South Tulsa to a church where he was leading a support group. They were hosting a luncheon and as I dropped him off, people were in the parking lot and greeting him with such love and appreciation. It was very enlightening and inspiring to see. That in itself is a cool little story about the man. But he shared so much more of his life story that it doesn’t just end there.
Mike was one of six children. His dad was in the military and they moved around quite a bit, but after the age of eight they lived in California. After settling there for just a couple of years his father passed away. So it was just his mom, he and five brothers and sisters. He was the oldest and had a sister one year younger than him and then there was a gap of five years. After a year of struggling, his mom found two families in Oklahoma to adopt the four younger kids; two were girls and two were boys. One family took the girls and the other family took the younger boys. But within the next year, his mother became ill and then she passed. He’s never been told what either of his parents died from. But after his mother passed, his aunt and grandmother reached out to those two families to see if they could take one more boy and one more girl to keep the siblings together. The families were hesitant but invited them to come out to Oklahoma for a few weeks. While they were visiting the mother’s funeral was in Texas and that he and his oldest sister went to the funeral. When they returned to their families in Oklahoma, the families agreed to adopt them. They all were raised in Oklahoma; the boys raised 120 miles away from the girls, but as they grew older they all kept in touch with each other. Five of them are still living, and he said they still keep in touch despite one being in the Middle East, one on the east coast, two returned to California and he here in Oklahoma.
He is such a happy and grateful man for his life and all that he’s been through and content with where his life has taken him. It’s amazing what you can learn from someone in a 20-minute Uber ride.
I picked up Martha this morning from her house, and immediately saw the destination as the Saint Francis Children’s Hospital. Now when I’m taking people to hospitals or picking them up I’m always very leery about asking the reasons for them being there, unless they are obviously in scrubs or what would appear to be work attire for the healthcare industry. And yet there is always this nudge to be polite and engage them. Well most of them.
She said she was going to visit her son. The next dilemma is whether or not to ask the big question of how’s he doing. There have been times when I don’t ask that question, but I did this morning and I’m very grateful that I chose to.
Martha’s son was born 22 days ago. Born after just 25 weeks, he weighed 1.6 pounds at birth. He even dropped some weight initially. But as of today is at 1.8 pounds. She’s been going up to the hospital everyday. Every day that she doesn’t spend the night, and she has spent many nights there. As soon as she responded about how he was doing and why he was there, internally I felt a little regret asking her because it meant she had to share what is obviously a tragic story, of which the end is still an unknown.
But she had joy in her voice and such a positive outlook on things. A good friend of hers is an infant intensive care nurse and had shared some things for her to be prepared for. She said the last few weeks before delivery she knew he may be early, but still 11 to 15 weeks early was much sooner than she was hoping for. She even said it herself, there’s no reason to be upset or angry over something she can’t control. She did what everybody should do when faced with a situation like that. She gathered information and she read. She read everything she could to educate yourself and prepare herself as much as possible. And of course she prayed.
She told me that things are looking good for him. There have been no brain bleeds and while they won’t know for certain any exact long-term complications yet, she said things are looking good. In her words, I’m just grateful for all the great medical attention he’s been given and that he lived through it and all the love that he’s been shown.
According to her doctors the way he’s progressing, he may only end up with some weak lungs that might make him susceptible to colds and viruses for the first three to four years of his life, but by then he should be advanced enough and be perfectly healthy. The nurses also told her one of the biggest keys from here on out is his surroundings and his care once he leaves the hospital.
She smiled and spoke confidently when she told me she liked that that’s in her hands. “It tells me that if I do the right things, he’s gonna be okay.
She shared how he seems to do better when she is up there overnight, as opposed to going home for better sleep. Even talked about how she is smiling at other parents and trying to make them feel better and have hope when she is at the hospital. Being selfless and showing concern for others in our darkest hours always reaps good rewards
As I pulled into the parking lot of the Children’s Hospital, we shared our equal views on having an attitude of gratitude and being positive. Because being negative or angry or hateful never solves any problems and only makes you feel worse and those around you feel worse. She said she felt blessed and almost at the same time we both said, “God blesses those who bless others.”
Uber & Lyft: Everyone Has A Story 