Dorothy Brush "Random Thoughts" Published April 23, 2003

Falling in love like some young thing ...

Have I forgotten how beautiful the redbud has been in other years or is it really extraordinary this year? As we traveled I-40 last week there were redbud trees in riotous color all through the forests and along the highway. What a sight to remember. It was several days later I was sorting through letters from the past and there was one that gave me an even greater appreciation of springtime.

The letter was from a longtime dear friend. She had been one of my roommates in nursing school. Following graduation she moved to the east coast, married and had six children, but we wrote each other faithfully and our friendship remained strong. I knew she had an unhappy marriage and it was no surprise that once the children were all grown she filed for divorce.

A short time later she suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and for many months she lay in the hospital comatose. No one thought there was any hope but how wrong we were. Her awakening was akin to the coming of spring. For so long she had been in a death-like state but then slowly, gradually she began to rouse and even though many more months of recovery were ahead of her she returned and was still the friend I knew.

The brother-in-law of her former husband began visiting her in the nursing home. His wife had died some time earlier and as time went on these two fell in love. They married and my friend, whose soul had endured so much as well as her body, was transformed. Once again her life was filled with sunshine, laughter and happiness.

Sixteen years had passed since they married and in late April of that year I received a letter from her about spring. She wrote, "I remember a spring vividly when I was in the hospital. I didn't know the seasons changed when I was there, living behind walls for so long. Then one day a volunteer took me in my wheelchair out to a little garden where the tulips were blooming. What a glorious sight!

"Another spring at the rest home I wakened one morning to hear the birds singing! I went from window to window to look for the tree they were in. They were only English sparrows, but it was like heaven to hear birds singing after so long a time. I walked down the street and picked dandelions to take back to the ladies in the home so they would know it was spring again also.

"I guess that spring was special. I was falling in love again like some young thing."

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Dorothy Copus Brush is a Fairfield Glade resident and Crossville Chronicle staffwriter whose column is published each Wednesday.