Maybe You’re Still Here!!!
And yes, that is a bit of a double entendre! I meant you the reader (since it has been so long since I have posted anything new) and you, Ashley!!! But a recent experience was a wake-up call for me and I knew I had to share it….So here goes!!
As I was busy trying to get my thoughts together for a new brochure I was writing for International Cruise Victims, I was directed to a website for a radio talk-show called Cruise Radio. I was intending to listen to a pod-cast on the site detailing several safety tips for those planning to take a cruise vacation. Great idea, since that is exactly what my brochure will be outlining as well.
I go on the site, see where I am to click to hear the pod-cast and begin listening. I am listening to Miami based attorney Jim Walker talking to the hosts of the program and suddenly my eyes land on some text there on the site which says that this one certain cellular provider now offers cruise ship cell service. All you have to do is call them and set up the service and you will be able to have your phone work while on your cruise ship!! Well, isn’t that a great idea, I thought to myself. I have never heard about this until now. Suddenly, I begin to think about the true significance of this and out of no where, I have the breath knocked out of me by this cosmic 2 x 4!! It’s like the universe needed to get my attention in a big way and it worked. As though a veil was being lifted from my eyes, it dawned on me that this one thing could have saved Ashley’s life. I began to tremble as I thought about the fact that she could have just grabbed her cell phone and called me or one of her brothers or best friends to say that she wanted off the ship because she had had a fight with her boyfriend or that she didn’t feel well and was scared or that she needed help. What if….if only….damn it!! That old voice of self-recrimination is still alive and well.
I made it through to the end of Jim’s interview somehow and then quickly picked up the phone to call the cellular provider to ask a few questions about this coverage and while I was on hold, the tears came. I tried so hard to stop them, make them go away, but the harder I tried the more upset I got and the more determined they seemed to be. I tried to swallow the huge lump in my throat and gather my wits about me by telling myself that I mustn’t be crying when the sales person comes on line. She will think you are a crazy lady!!! So I’m trying and wiping my eyes when suddenly the representative comes on and says in a cheerful voice, “Hello and welcome, how may I help you? My name is ASHLEY!”
Oh dear God, please don’t do this to me, I thought. I don’t need this kind of test!! But there wasn’t time for much more thinking than that; I had to speak to her. And somehow with a tiny little, weak and sniffly voice I began to ask her about the details of the cruise ship service plan. Finally, the call was over and I just began to sob. I kept thinking of how long it had been since I had had a day like this. Remember, I used to measure my good days by defining them as one I got all the way through without crying? Oh, I couldn’t stop. But eventually a realization came to me.
It may or may not have saved Ashley’s life, this phone service, but it definitely is important information. Now, she or the Universe itself wants me to do something with it. It hits me….get the word out there!! Put that in your brochure, Jamie. Let it save someones life NOW!
So it will now be front and center in the ICV brochure which is coming soon and I have no doubt that that is just as Ashley intended. I love hearing from you sweet baby, but Oh, how loudly you and/or the Universe speak sometimes…is it wrong to say that occasionally, a whisper would do!!
