A good surprise...

Sir Paul McCartney on stage

THE LULU CHRONICLES

Sometimes surprises are bad and sometimes they are good. Lately, I’ve had mostly bad ones. The Hubs was diagnosed with Stage IV Melanoma…. was not expecting that. While at Mayo for treatment our basement back home (four hours away) flooded. Surprise! And, an unexpected trip to the emergency room surprised us with the news that the cancer had increased. That very same evening as we were leaving the emergency room at two in the morning, we climbed into our car only to find that it wouldn’t start. Our insurance company has informed us they will not pay for the Hubs’ treatment. They think it’s ‘medically unnecessary’. Oh, and add to those little afore mentioned ditties, my mom was diagnosed with melanoma as well. The above jumped out from behind the couch shouting surprise all since February.

But, this week I received a surprise that knocked my socks off, a good surprise. Leaving Mayo after the Hubs’ treatment, which was a wasted trip because we got there only to find that his blood count was too low to administer the chemo (bad surprise), the Hubs pulled a rabbit out of the hat. I thought we were leaving Mayo and traveling to our son’s house. It turned out, he had two tickets in his pocket for Paul McCartney’s Out There concert in Milwaukee. Good surprise. No, scratch that—a great surprise on the magnitude scale of a billion plus.  A McCartney concert had been on my wish list since 1964.

Oh, folks, it was wonderful. Sir Paul was on stage for three hours non-stop. He charmed. He crooned. He made us laugh. He made us cry. Singing along with Sir Paul, the Hubs and about 75,000 of my closest friends the words to “Hey, Jude” transcended me beyond all the ugliness of the past few weeks, and for three hours cancer did not have a death grip on my heart. When Paul stood on the stage by himself and sang “Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away…” the Hubs and I locked eyes. I patted his now bald head and we kissed. Oh, at that moment how I believed in yesterday. 

Yeah, it was just a concert with flash and fireworks. It was only good for what it was good for, but for me that night, it lifted the burden and replaced it, albeit only temporarily, with a lightness I hadn’t experienced in months. And the best part is that the Hubs loved surprising me. He pulled it off. He was quite proud of himself.

These days, our life is about moments. Thanks to the sweet Hubs, I have another one to tuck away into my treasure chest.

Wishing you many good surprises to come…

deb