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Vieques- March 2006
Living and Working in Vieques..
Living and Working
My Partner is home. Home from MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, home for a month before he has to go back to be reevaluated.
Before he came home, a few friends dropped in on him for the ringing of the bells ceremony, marking the end of his radiation. Radiation, chemo-therapy. CAT scans, brain scans, needles.MD Anderson is the kind of place where pain is graded on a scale of 1-10. Eli looked pretty good, hadnt even lost his hair. But there were scars, on his arm from the needles and in his heart from the scare.
Before Eli became ill, I had been spared having a loved one with cancer. I knew people, of course, but at a remove. When Eli was diagnosed, it was, as I imagine it is for everyone, a seminal moment in life. Not just his life, but the lives of his marvelous sisters, one charming sister lives in Houston; the other three trouped out there seriatim, to cook for him, to nurture him, to care for him. For his life partner, once, a few weeks ago, a carefree young man, now tracking the meds, charting the treatment times, ordering room service, devising amusements for the weekends. Doing everything and anything to distract Eli, watching DVDs late into the night, hard to sleep, hard to do anything but care for Eli.
It will be easier for Eli to reenter life at home than for some others, because he has been connected by laptop for many hours a day. Connected to the Crows Nest, to the Real Estate Company, to the Historical Trust and to Vieques Events. Connected also by the hundreds of emails he received from loving friends, connected to the gossip, the news, and the rumors that comprise Vieques life.
Now, at last, and how he has yearned for this, he has the real thing. His absence cast a long shadow, but now we can pump his hand, grasp his shoulder, kiss his cheek we can playfully punch him in the arm, and say welcome home.
He has been to the battlefield. He has seen things, pain and sadness, that we try our best to avoid. They pricked him, x-rayed him, shot him full of rays and chemicals, and all the while he never, not once, said it hurts. He does not complain, about his disease, about his recent treatment. He is a man who can not burden other people. Even if we would gladly shoulder some of his burden, he will not allow it. It is not pride that prevents him from sharing his hard time; it is a genuine sense of other people feelings, of not wanting other people to feel bad, to hurt.
There will be a party. Friends will come and some will cry softly with relief, others will tell jokes and laugh also with relief.
My Partner is home. The ground which cracked under the weight of his absence has suddenly straightened; the sun, obscured by his time away, is shining again and all is right with the world, living and working, in Vieques. Welcome Home, Eli.Have a wonderful Spring,
Sheila
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Webmaster's Note * Sheila has many hats and is Co-owner of Crow's Nest Realty with Eli Belendez.
Sheila can be reached for a brochure through her web page at http://www.crowsnestrealty.com