"Do the things that brighten your life and help you on your way."
- Collin McCarthy (quoted by Liz Wessel in the weekend Journal)
Her note began cheerfully. "Hello! My name is Deanna, I'm the daughter of Bartley Mullin...He worked with you at Riverside [Methodist] Hospital "
It has been a quarter century since I left that hallowed hospital, a place I had the gift of leading for half that time. I searched my flooded memory & recalled Bartley. But could not imagine why his daughter was writing.
"I remember meeting you when I was a young child," she continued. "My dad brought me to work ...and we ran into you near the elevator...I remember thinking that you were dressed like someone very important...like Willy Wonka from the movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory."
What a creative description of a business suit...& to be thought of as "magical"!
"My dad was proud to introduce me," she wrote. "As I smiled you said 'You've got dimples...only lucky people have dimples.' ...Our exchange was brief but I have carried what you said with me my entire life. I have lived a life of great love, luck and many blessings...So you were right, dimples are lucky!"
Perhaps, you have been fortunate to receive notes that bloom from your email like flowers. One note represents thousands of unacknowledged times you delivered light to another.
Caregivers sometimes tell me that they do not have time to give loving care. Deanna said "our exchange was brief" proving that we all have magic powers that can enlighten another in seconds. That moment stayed with her & raised her chances that she would live a "lucky" life. Those who think that way are happier than those who do not - no matter what happens.
Caregiving lands you amid suffering. It also empowers you to deliver magic in seconds. You may not have dimples, but if you have spent most of your life brightening other's you are automatically lucky.
Thank you, Deanna, for brightening my day.
-Erie Chapman
*Picture courtesy of Deanna Mullin Leonhardt with her dad, who passed away in 2017
