Oh how I wish I had this blog up and running a couple of months ago. I dearly would have loved to tell the tale of Joe and Donna Elliott from the very beginning. Alas, I have to start in the middle...but it's never too late to tell a great story...
Back in September, our friend Paul went into the hospital with some cardiac problems. After an abbreviated (thank God for small favors) stay at South Shore Hospital, he was transferred to New England Medical Center in Boston. My fiance Joe and I went often to visit Paul, and on one of our visits we met a man named Joe Elliott who was in the hospital waiting for a heart transplant. We also met his wife Donna, who is legally blind, and her guide dog, Dixon. After meeting this incredible couple just once, my Joe (which is how we now refer to him so as not to confuse the 2 Joe's: Donna's Joe and my Joe) and I were touched beyond words. The love they had for each other was a true inspiration, and we saw them as the perfect example to follow as we began our own life together.
We developed a strong bond with Donna and Joe as we waited and prayed that Joe would get a new heart. It's difficult to explain the depth of the friendship we developed...it was like we had known each other forever, though they had just come into our lives. We grew in a very short time to love these people, and that started us praying even harder for Joe's life.
Well, on December 4th our prayers were answered. Joe received a new heart. A new heart! I still get the chills when I think about it. It wasn't an easy surgery, but Joe pulled through and he left the hospital on December 21. My Joe and I had the honor of driving them back home to Rhode Island in style...in a white stretch limo (Dixon LOVED it!).
Today is the 1-month anniversary of Joe's surgery. He is doing well, and my Joe and I are planning a trip down there soon to see them and give them a great big hug. We miss hugging them...we got used to it over the course of their 3-month stay.
We feel especially blessed to have had Joe and Donna enter our lives when they did. My Joe proposed to me on November 11, and they were here to share that joy with us. In fact, we were in a Boston restaurant when he asked me and our first stop after dinner was over to the hospital to share the news. And now we look forward to having them celebrate our commitment to one another when we get married in July. It was something we didn't let ourselves think about before: whether or not Joe would be here for our wedding. Now we count on it. Not only that, but I plan on getting him up on the dance floor with me at least once!
Thought for the day: Those who come to mean the most to us are often placed in our paths under the most ordinary of circumstances. A trip to visit a friend in the hospital yielded two new and extraordinary friends. There are angels among us.