Yolanda’s Thanks

Yolanda

Yolanda is beaming! “Thank you very much” she says in very good English.

“Thanks to Him” she says pointing toward the sky with both hands “and to him,” pointing to eye surgeon Chris Allen, “and to him,” pointing to Dane, “and to all of you, I can see again!”
I complemented her on her fine English. The smile split her face even wider. “I am so grateful. This is too big for me. This is too big for me.” Yolanda can hardly take it in. Full of appreciation, she hugs Dr. Allen. She hugs Dane, then dances a couple steps with each of them. All this is happening in the morning clinic where all yesterday’s eye surgery patients return for a follow-up visit. They are getting their eye patches removed, to see for the first time the results of their operation.

I’m fascinated by Yolanda’s vision, both kinds. Her physical vision needed to be improved, and thanks to Centura Health’s Mission program, we were able to help with that. In her expression of thanks, she saw the obvious, the team that came from Colorado to restore eyesight. I wish she could have seen all of the folks at Porter that have helped support this mission. Some who donated various supplies for the trip. Some who adjusted work schedules to allow colleagues to travel to Peru. Some who have worked for years in Porter’s eye service, known for decades as the “best in the west,” known well enough to draw patients from a large surrounding area. Yolanda’s thanks is for all of you, too. You are part of the not-so-obvious, larger community of support that has restored her eyesight.

Yolanda’s spiritual vision was quite intact, in no need of improvement. Even without good eyesight, she saw well beyond the obvious. That’s one definition of faith: the ability, the willingness to see beyond the obvious. She hadn’t lost that at all. In acknowledging God and in saying “This is too big for me” she demonstrated both facets of the dimension of faith known in spiritual assessment as “A sense of the Holy.” One facet is having a place in one’s life space for someone who is greater, by whatever name one may have been taught or discovered through personal observation. The second facet is being comfortable in one’s own skin as a human being, or, as one historian observed about the great discovery of the founders of AA, the understanding that “I am not God.” “There is a Higher Power, and I am not it. There is something much bigger. I am a part of it and so are you.” Yolanda is thankful for all who are part of this “something bigger” that Porter understands as its reason for being.

Yolanda thanks you all.

Dane is another story. Actually, he’s part of the same story. If you’ve never seen a tall blonde teddy bear, meet Dane. Dane, joining the team from San Francisco, calls Diane ----- “Mom.” Diane is a Porter eye surgery circulating nurse. You may have seen Dane’s handiwork in San Francisco: he designs and tends flower gardens along the famous winding Lombard Street. Here he’s been helping patients wind their way through the preparation for surgery, literally leading the blind to a hopeful destiny.

“The gift of sight – what a gift!” Dane exclaims, describing his experience with a 40-year-old patient. “She hugged me! She hugged me on the way in, all the way to surgery. I have to be there to see her tomorrow in follow-up. Her whole family hugged me after surgery. I told her “I want to see you again tomorrow, when you’ll be able to see me better.” He did; she did; it was all smiles and more hugs all around.

Be Blessed and Be a Blessing,
From the Porter South Campus, in Peru,
Glenn