November 4, 2022
When Jackie’s story began, I wrote “people like Jackie stretch those limits, bringing the next set of limits in medical science in reach.” Giving me the finest compliment, my editor said she would not touch my writing, would not interfere with my unique style. She was tough on the broader concepts. Foremost, she told me the beginning had to be changed; people would be confused at the start and put the book down. So I thought maybe the writing was enough, that I did not need a beginning, did not need to share it with readers. I could be satisfied putting it in a drawer.
Then, fiddling with my phone, I came upon a note written many months before, while Jackie was in a bind in an ICU with no clear way out. It was ten pm and I was driving home from the hospital when the purest thought came into my mind. If I were to write Jackie’s story, this would be the beginning. I pulled into a gas station and wrote it in Notes on my iPhone. And I forgot about it until coming upon it after the exchange with the editor. I sent this beginning paragraph to her word for word and her response, this was it. And thus it goes, the very beginning of A Chance Meeting with Life written about Jackie by her mother, Jan Price…
“The story I am about to tell could be the story of a young girl of twenty-five who has cystic fibrosis. It could be the story of a mother who nearly lost her daughter and didn’t, and it could be about what happened to a family. It’s really a story about how strong human beings are, and capable, and resilient. Not weak, strong. We can do, and then move for- ward, and do again. We have to think of ourselves as tough like that young girl of twenty-five was tough, and her moth- er, too. This is a story about things that should not happen to a person but sometimes they do, and this time did.”
And then, the “beginning” became the ending…
“I look at Jackie. Is she here because of me, her father, because of Dr. Brown, Dr. King, Dr. Clayton, all the peo- ple who answered the phone when we made medical ap- pointments over the years, the ones who called back with test results or mailed medical records from one specialist to another? Is she here because of the gastroenterologist, the otolaryngologist, the radiologist, the endocrinologist? Is she here because of Jackie, smart and determined, and that strong will to live?
What did save Jackie’s life those months ago in Inova Fairfax Hospital’s Heart and Vascular Institute were surely the far reaches of medical science. People like Jackie stretch those limits, bringing the next set of limits in medical science in reach. We’ve suffered, we’ve given, and we’ve gained. This happened to a family, it happened to a mom, it happened to a young girl and shouldn’t have, but it did.”
There’s a whole lot in-between.