4588 South Park Ave
My wife was taken from me last year. Her wonderful life was shortened considerably by breast cancer. She did not go quietly or predictably. She fought her disease twice with courage, grace, research and alternative therapies. You see Coleen was not one to take such matters sitting down. If there was something to learn, she taught herself. If there was something she didn’t know, she asked. Although treated by the traditional methods of surgery, chemotherapy and radiation, Coleen knew there was more to fighting cancer than just what the doctors ordered. So she combined traditional western medicines with several forms of holistic treatments and therapies to wage her war and protect her wellness as honorably as she could.Coleen’s holistic weapons included yoga, massage, vitamins, nutrition, reiki, meditation, acupuncture, Eastern spirituality and more. She was an avid reader and remembered details from books long ago read. Her insatiable thirst for knowledge led her in many directions and taught her so many things. Through her holistic practices, Coleen developed an impressive and talented network of practitioners and advisers. It was kind of dream team of support for her and although she never expected to be healed from any one of them, the emotional and internal strength provided by each was crucial to her state of mind as her journey developed.
One of Coleen’s favorite holistic treatments was reiki. Someone recommended it to her along with a reiki practitioner named Rebecca. Coleen loved it. She had several sessions with Rebecca and I was always very excited for her when she told me she had a reiki appointment because it always put her in such good spirits afterwards. I didn’t know much about reiki and even Coleen, as articulate as she was, had a difficult time explaining it to me. Maybe I just didn’t listen well enough, but I knew she loved it and that was really all that mattered.
When Coleen met with Rebecca, there was more going on than just reiki. They talked together. Coleen could tell Rebecca things she didn’t feel comfortable telling others and Rebecca helped her with many things. One of the things they talked about was me. Coleen expressed her concern for me and how I would be crushed by her death. She was worried about how I would get along without her and with the rest of my life. Coleen told Rebecca that she did not want me to be alone and that my life would take on so many changes. Coleen was so worried about me that she arranged for eight sessions for me with Rebecca to be used after she died. She told Rebecca something like “Rob’s going to have a really hard time with losing me and he’s going to need help. I know he’ll listen to you.”
About a week before Coleen died, Rebecca called her. I answered the phone because by then Coleen had lost her voice and couldn’t be heard very well. I had never talked to Rebecca before but she was worried about Coleen and called to see how she was and to offer a reiki house-call. We accepted her offer and scheduled it for the upcoming Friday. Unfortunately, Coleen died two days prior to that appointment. I texted Rebecca to tell her and to cancel the appointment and she said she would get back to me in a few days to see how I was. And she did.
A week after Coleen’s death, Rebecca called me and told me about the gift Coleen had left me, the reiki and counseling sessions she had purchased to help me cope with my loss. As Rebecca explained Coleen’s gift, I was so stunned that I sat down on my porch and let the tears out. Overwhelmed as I was with Coleen’s planning and love, I still had not met Rebecca and had no idea of the power that gift held.
Rebecca and I met a few days later and we talked for nearly an hour about me, Coleen, life with her, life without her and life ever after. She introduced some sound therapy to me and told me she could help me. That Coleen would be helping me through her and that I would be safe. I believed her, I believed them. Throughout the last eight months, Rebecca has been a tremendous guidance and comfort to me as I have journeyed on a brand new path. She has reikied me, counseled me, scolded me, and most of all encouraged me to take on my feelings and my loss and become stronger and newer because of it. She has helped me realize the life opportunities I have before me and how I can be a difference not just to myself but to those around me. She has been a guiding light to me and I truly do not know where I would be, what I would be or who I would be without her.
A few days ago, I had a reiki session with Rebecca. It was different from all the others because it was the last one. I have visited with her at her little reiki cottage at 4588 South Park Ave many times during the past eight months. And many changes have occurred in me as a result of those visits. As that last reiki session played out, I was overwhelmed with emotion. It hadn’t dawned on me until I was under Rebecca’s reiki care for the final time the significance of that session. Suddenly I realized all of the things that had transpired in that room. I remembered the first time I was there, wounded badly by Coleen’s death just a week before. And I thought about all the different things I learned there, all the healing that had happened, all the discoveries I had made, and all the comfort and love I felt from Rebecca and through her, from Coleen. I didn’t always feel Coleen’s presence in the room when I had reiki, but there were many times when I did and they were powerful and emotional experiences. As I layed on that table, I thought about the journey I had taken and what had become of me since I first arrived. I realized what a changed person I had become because of Rebecca and Coleen and what I learned from them at 4588 South Park Ave. I will miss that place and the counsel and talents of Rebecca and the spirit of Coleen. Yet I believe I take from there and from them the knowledge I have gained and the lessons I have learned. I believe I can apply all that into my new life and wonder if that wasn’t the purpose of it all anyway.
One year for Christmas Coleen bought me a book that contained 100 different date ideas. She said it was a gift that kept on giving. So was her last gift to me, it keeps on giving and teaching and healing and I don’t think it will ever stop.
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