What happens when your BMT NP meets your best friend? Hard to say but this is what happened to mine two years later....

August 2003

August 31, 2003 They met in my hospital room!

Well, my good friends Rolf and Andi believe that good things can come from cancer. They met, fell in love, got married and all that because of my lymphoma. During my BMT treatment, these two wonderful, independent, and previously single people met and started their path to becoming as one..

I'm very happy for them, but I have one request: If there are any other couples out there who want to meet, please leave me out of it!

 


This is Rolf and Andi listening to me give my best-man speech

 

Quote of the Month

"May I have the Wwring?"~Priest in the movie "the Princess Bride".

 

Here's the actual toast I gave at their wedding! (slightly edited to protect the innocent)

Hello, My name is jamie. I'm honored to be the first to make a toast to the newlyweds. I thought this would be an excellent time to re-tell the story of how rolf and andi first met. The three of us each have our own version of this story, but I can assure you that my version is the most truthful... Anyone who has ever heard rolf tell a story before will know what I'm talking about..

Almost exactly three years ago I was diagnosed with a full blown case of lymphoma cancer. After a year of various treatments, doctors and nurses, I eventually met andi. She was my attending NP as i prepaired for a bone marrow transplant.

We hit it off immeadeatly, talking about skiing and the runs we liked at alta. Andi was very supportive, and good with needles. It didn't take me long to realize that Andi was the best. And it wasn't long before I began telling my best friend Rolf about my new discovery. I said "Rolf, she's cute, friendly, intelligent, and wait till you see her *EDITED*.

Rolf rebuked, saying "Naw, all women look the same in scrubs"

That's when I got really excited, saying, "no, she never wears scrubs. Everytime I see her she's always wearing really nice clothes. She's a great dresser."

Shortly after this, I began my new treatment and was admitted to the hospital for a month long period. Rolf became interested in meeting andi. Since he worked in the same hospital building, he frequently came by my room to visit. Wether he was there to see me or andi, I'll never know.

Then one day it happened. Rolf was in my room on a visit and andy came by on rounds. Much to my dissapointment, andi was decked out top to bottom in a stock pair of green scrubs.

I honestly hadn't thought much of trying to hook the two up, but when they met I immeadeatly sensed the sparks flying. If I had had any hair left on my body, I'm sure it would have been standing on end. Rolf and andi quickly fell into a deep discussion.

Have you ever had the feeling that you were slowly being squeezed out of a conversation? That's the feeling I had, lying there in my hospital bed, on the verge of death, listening to rolf and andi getting to know eachother. I felt like I was sort of getting smaller and smaller, my presence receeding from the room as they exchanged small talk more and more excitedly. For the first time since I'd entered the hospital, I wasn't the center of attention, in fact I was dissappearing! But I didn't mind, because I sensed that something big was going on between these two seemingly random people, and I was getting to watch the fireworks.

I don't really remember what they talked about, but eventually andi left to continue her rounds. Rolf watched her leave, Then he looked at me and said happily,"Okay, all nurses don't look the same in scrubs!"

There many other great stories of rolf and andi's early courtship. there's the time Rolf slept in my hospital room for two hours hoping to casually "bump into" andi. And then there's the time I played messenger and asked andi for her email address to give to rolf.

But my favorite story is of their first meeting, there in my hospital room. Because that's when I saw the beautiful thing that happens when two people who are truly meant for each other, finally meet.

To a lifetime of fireworks..

 

 


Okay,it's not really this green in utah in august. This is Kuma and I playing on the Mormon trail in May.