News of Ms. Laurel

[Lisa Heft]

Hello, all.

For those of you who are not familiar with this series of messages, our
colleague and co-host of our last world gathering, Ms. Laurel Doersam,
is currently fighting advanced ovarian cancer.

She is now experiencing the 'aftershocks', as she calls them, of her
ongoing chemotherapy program.  She's feeling flu-ish and really so
exhausted that she just has to embrace that fully and do very little
else each day.

She is really warmed, soothed, inspired and feeling loved by all your
kind thoughts and the messages you send via fax, me (I receive your
emails and fax them to Laurel's friend to give to her), the mails, the
cosmos and other means.  They have no email access at this time and
telephone contact is difficult as they've turned on the machine to
lessen the impact of ringing phones and having to respond.

She is good at taking all that you send her and allowing her friends and
family to love her up.  Its all like a warm, soft blanket, as she says:
"I feel like I want to gather my life up and my loved ones around me."

She is focused on "getting through this" and is good at letting people
do things for her.

She's going to lose all her hair.  Her daughter Jessica (16) is a gifted
artist.  Jessica presented her mother with an amazing illustration of a
beautiful, glowing, hairless Laurel surrounded by golden bubbles.
Laurel really treasures that picture.

Laurel's co-workers from the hospital wanted to know what they could do
for her.  She had been receiving so many cards and flowers from them
that she said that was wonderful.  They wanted to do more...so she
thought for a moment and said, "Well if you want to, you call lay the
rocks and brick that Rick and I had gathered before this and finish our
driveway and front yard for us."  "Consider it done," said her old boss.

Her medical insurance only covers $200 Canadian in therapy visits.
Laurel went back to her wonderful therapist - the one who'd gotten her
and the kids through the difficult times after her divorce - and said
she wanted at least a few visits.  The therapist said, "We've been
through a lot together.  Why don't you continue paying just the portion
you used to pay and I will comp you the rest (provide the rest for
free)?  I'll see you through this."

Her insurance did pay for $10,000 of home health care.  So she asked for
a home health worker to clean the house and run simple errands for her.
The doorbell rings, and who should the home health care worker be but a
woman who used to live in the same very small (one store) town in the
country Laurel did when her kids were small.  They'd both raised their
pre-schoolers together, they were both on the parent-teacher committees
in school, and they shared lots of memories.  As a surprise to both,
that's who gets to help Laurel around the house and run her errands.
What a gift to each of them.

So you see, Laurel continues to draw towards her just the same kind of
love and energy that she puts out.

Feel free to keep those warm thoughts, prayers, cards, faxes and emails
coming.

You can fax any messages you may
have to their good friends Janet and Paul (250 744-1697),

or email messages to me and I'll send them on to her.

Take good care of yourselves,

Lisa

--
L i s a    H e f t
Consultant, facilitator, educator
Experiential learning and Open Space Technology

2325 Oregon
Berkeley, California
94705-1106 USA
(+01) 510 548-8449
www.openspaceworld.com

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