I had been thinking about the land and putting a cabin on it for some time. In the middle of the property is a large pond, crescent shaped, stocked with bluegill, bass, and catfish. … Unruly willows battle to stay close to the water’s edge. There are mushrooms, blackberries, and paw paws.
It may not be God’s Country, but I like to think it is a place where she might visit.
In 2008, my sister spent more nights in a hospital than out of one. After much chemo and transfusions of platelets and one failed autotransplant of her own recycled stem cells, her doctor sent her to the bone marrow clinic for evaluation. Though her chances for survival were slim, it was decided that she would receive an allogeneic transplant, preferably from a family member. Brothers, sisters, and sons were eager to be tested for compatibility. Four of the five siblings were a match, which, apparently, is a remarkable statistic.
After further examination, I was asked by my sister’s oncologist to donate cells.
—Theater Professor Dwight Watson, from “Great Faith in a Seed,” published 2016 in Ars Medica: A Journal of Medicine, the Arts and Humanities