So today I caught up with an old school friend of mine, Sophie that I haven't seen in over 10 years. It was truly wonderful seeing her face and hearing voice. She still looks the same, as beautiful as ever and smiling from ear to ear, like no time had elapsed. Although our screaming children certainly showed that we had grown up in some sense.
We talked about many things. My recent separation from my husband, parenting, careers, then I began to share all the tragedies that have been littered throughout the past several years of my life. Losing some of the most incredible and influential women in my life. I spoke of how my aunts passing had changed my family's world. That my mother had not been quite the same since losing her baby sister. I began to tell her of the circumstances of Mikki's passing, of how my mother and she had worked together and how one day an aneurysm had claimed my aunts life while she sat at the reception desk. At which point my friend Sophie asked if my mother and aunt had worked for WHK. A little taken aback I replied with a yes, wondering how on Earth could she possibly know that. She looked at me and said "I think Pete was the one who performed CPR on your aunt." Pete is Sophie's husband. The wind was knocked out of me for a second, and it felt like my heart stopped. What a completely and amazingly small world we live in! I rang my mother and she confirmed it.
I still can't quite believe my mother and aunt worked with Soph's husband for all those years and we had no idea. It's just mind blowing how lives become intertwined.
Sophie told me of how Peter came home and how that days events had shaken him. I felt so sad that he had to witness that, but I also felt comforted knowing that the person who was trying to breathe life back into her, was somehow connected to me.
I don't know if Sophie or her husband Peter know just how grateful we are for his efforts. That he truly holds a special place in our hearts. That he did everything he could to try and save a life that was so incredibly precious to us, means more than he will ever know. I stopped in to see my grandparents this afternoon, and my grandmother said that my mother had called and told her that it was my friend's husband who had tried to save Mikki. She looked at me through those sad and loving eyes and said, "Please tell him, thank you." So I wanted to take the opportunity to do just that, from my entire family. I'm not sure how to even say thank you for such courage and strength, or that any words will be enough.
Firstly, to my friend Sophie, thank you for putting two and two together and telling me it was your husband who was there that day. Also, it took all the strength I had today not to cry. It's such a hard subject for me, usually just reading her name can evoke the deepest emotions. You see she was so important in my life. Her name was Mikki, and she was amazing. I would give the world to see her face again and hear her laugh, and your husband tried to keep her with us, which is just about the most heroic thing to me and my family.
To Peter, the man who tried valiantly to save my aunt, who is married to my friend Sophie and father to her two gorgeous girls. Thank you for coming back when you heard Mikki collapse. Thank you for trying. Thank you for caring about a human life and giving it your best shot to keep her with us. We are eternally grateful and from the bottom of our hearts..... thank you.
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