A Mother's Heart Beat: Chickee

April 2092

She sat there with a tear trickling down her cheek.

What’s the matter, Chickee? asked the nurse’s aide who passed out napkins and tableware.

I was just remembering…. she answered. Sometimes when I hear my own heartbeat, I remember things.

Chickee usually took pride in her upbeat attitude, but today was a hard day. A flood of memories swirled around in her head, and it seemed that the sad ones came to the surface today. Her mind skipped to the moment she decided to create Mother’s Heartbeat.

2012

He was twelve years old. His name was Todd. He had leukemia and his mother had died two years earlier in a horrendous car accident where a semi-truck ran over her car on the Interstate. He found out he had the leukemia only six weeks after burying his mom.

Chickee was good friends with Teresa, his mother. Chickee and Jared kept in touch with Todd’s grandparents, and helped out in Todd’s care when they could. She took a shift twice a week to sit with Todd in the hospital so his grandma could run errands and have some time to herself. His grandparents had plans to adopt Todd. It seemed like the daily toll of treatments, reactions to medicines, and hospitalizations got in the way of all the other important things of life. But Todd was a fighter. To Chickee’s delight, Todd enjoyed her visits immensely, because she reminded him of his real mom. Having her there was about as close as having his mom back as he could get.

Chickee held, cradled this small, sick twelve-year-old boy whose heart was listening to her heartbeat. She got a stethoscope for this purpose, because it seemed to really make a difference in Todd’s recovery when he went on a downhill turn like this one. His head rested weakly on her shoulder. Suddenly it came to her: a technological device that helps connect one person’s heartbeat to another’s heartbeat rhythm. Sending a body’s memory back to the nurturing and safe haven of the womb. Prenatal communication of swish-swish and tha-thump, tha-thump.

Back in the eighties, people caught on to the idea of sound as a catalyst for change. Truthfully, the recognition of the power of sound to impact a person’s healing ability happened many years before. People used positive energy techniques long before Mother’s Heartbeat was even an idea in Chickee’s mind. Family members of patients who were in a coma were encouraged to speak to their loved ones, because the belief was that they could hear, even if they couldn’t respond or indicate in any way that they knew what the person was saying to them.

Nurse Tara passed around the iced tea. Only it didn’t have ice in it. That always bugged Chickee, but she never told anyone. The lady who sat next to her at mealtimes rolled into place at the table and set the brake on her hover chair.

What are you looking at?

Chickee looked away. She often wondered why so many of the residents were in a bad mood all the time. She wiped away her tears defiantly and took a sip of lukewarm tea, wondering what would be served for dinner tonight. Murphy, over at the next table, smiled and waved at her, flirtatious as ever. She nodded her head at him. He constantly flirted with all the ladies in Green Valley.

Her mind wandered again into the past. She thought about her best friend, Stella. Having known each other for over half their lives, she and Stella were friends through thick and thin. One of the things that always stuck out in Chickee’s mind as she reminisced about their friendship was the times they went and helped on disaster relief efforts, first for Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and again when the Joplin tornado hit in 2011. Those selfless exhausting times were the ones when you see a person’s true colors, and Chickee knew she and Stella had kindred hearts for helping people. It was a lot of hard work, clearing debris, passing out drinking water, organizing places for people to stay while their homes and neighborhoods were being rebuilt. All of it required selfless and determined people with a vision for making the world a better place. She also knew how much of a gem Lee was for supporting Stella and her in their determination to help people. Although Chickee didn’t have a child in those years, Stella relied upon Lee to watch a five-year-old Tommy while she answered the call to assist. If only Chickee had the energy now to help people in a real and meaningful way.

James and Tara slowly passed around trays of food to the residents. The guy with hair going in every direction yelled loudly. He was always angry. When James set the tray of food down in front of Wild Hair, he flipped it over onto the floor. I guess you’re not hungry today, Pete? James asked him.

Chickee went back into her own thoughts. Todd had completed seven rounds of chemotherapy when she went in to link heartbeats with him. He was so weak; the doctors were concerned he would give up. Chickee was determined to not let that happen. She focused on the connection and tried to clear her mind of everything except the heartbeat and the healing thoughts.

She also believed in the power of prayer. Sometimes she felt like her work as a Mother’s Heartbeat Rep was as much a prayer warrior’s job as anything. When sickness and pain make a person feel powerless, sometimes the only thing left to do is pray.

She needed put all these memories to sleep for awhile, or she would start crying again. Tara set a tray of white and yellow in front of Chickee. Some kind of white meat about the size of the palm of her hand. White gravy on top of white mashed (boxed) potatoes, yellow corn kernels in a small pile going astray into the potatoes, and a white Styrofoam cup of white pear slices. She smiled to herself remembering how, as a kid, she would argue Skittles are a balanced meal, because they make a colorful plate like the health class book said. Aim to serve a meal that has a variety of color. A colorful plate is not only appealing to the eye, but most likely to address all five food groups. Ha. She could make a colorful plate without any white foods; just give her a bag of Skittles. She reluctantly dug her fork into the white mound of potatoes with gravy.

If she knew then what she knew now, would she still have been a Mother’s Heartbeat Rep?

Chapter 2

No Regrets

2014

The excruciating headaches were something Chickee had at first chalked up to stress when she started linking with Todd. But no doubt about it, longevity meant she could continue to help people. Continuing to help people meant longevity. And the headaches were something Chickee had gotten used to over the years. When the idea for linking heartbeats first occurred to Chickee, she sat down to do some research. She knew whenever she talked to her mother over the phone, hearing Mom’s voice soothed her troubles and sent her racing heartbeat down a notch, but was there any research on heartbeats hearing each other?

Studies showed people who focus on a common activity in unison often maintain the same cadence of heartbeat. One study Chickee found revealed people who sing together in a choir actually align their heartbeats as they sing together. The evidence was there. Heartbeats listen to one another.

Todd seemed to visibly relax. As he rested with the stethoscope earbuds tucked into his ears, she focused on calm, pleasant, healing thoughts. She knew a bit about herbal remedies, so her first inclination was to imagine the herbs that cause relaxation: chamomile, with its small yellow, puffy blooms; valerian root and its pungent rooty smell; hyssop, purple fuzzy pods of healing and calming in them; also purple and calming: lavender and sage.

For a moment, she was distracted by the people out in the hallway of the hospital, wailing and crying. People with their own various family or friends to visit. Several crying teenagers came out of a room across the hall. Chickee remembered the newscast from last night--two local teens very seriously injured in a car accident; the driver, under the influence of alcohol. From the looks of the waiting room when she walked through, several of their friends were holding a vigil for the two who were in critical condition. She wondered if any of those kids had someone to link and listen to heartbeats with for comfort and healing. Returning to her own task, she refocused on Todd or she would be sending him the wrong signals.

She stayed with him, connected at least by touch of a hand or her palm resting on his arm until he was breathing deeply again. She was stiff. She needed to stretch, and get a drink of water. As she stood, she realized she had a horrible throbbing headache. The fluorescent lights in the hospital hallway were painfully bright. The pounding in her head was nearly unbearable.

It was the first headache of many. Every linking session caused the Linker to have a horrible headache after treatment. That was the price paid for being a Linker.

Chickee headed towards the cafeteria and bought a water and an orange. She sat down near a window, even though it seemed like a black night on the other side of the glass, and she peeled the orange by first ripping the two ends off, then tearing strips of rind off until the full, whole orange was a juicy ball waiting to be sectioned and slurped.

She carefully laid out a napkin and set the peeled orange down on it. It made a wet circle on the paper napkin. Without even wiping the stickiness off her fingers, she cradled her head between her palms and prayed for her headache to subside. Next, she sectioned the orange, and ate it sliver by sliver, peeling off the stringy whites before popping them into her mouth. She ignored her headache. She thought more about the concept of making this a real opportunity for helping others. What would it take? How does a person begin a project like this? She would have to ask Joan—after her head quit hurting and she’d had a chance to rest, and of course checked on Todd again.

Chapter 3

Mother’s Heartbeat Grows

2014

Chickee wondered if there was a mom next door who could be a heartbeat link for that child, too. Moms were always the best candidates for being a child’s heartbeat Linker. It's the most soothing heartbeat a person knows--from prenatal memory. Funny how Chickee’s non-mother heartbeat is equally as soothing as the real mom heartbeat, as long as she links and focuses on the positive images and messages. Send the love, said her first Mother’s Heartbeat recruit Linker, Rana.

Rana was a real mom. She lost her second child as a newborn to a mysterious virus that swept through the neo-natal ICU in 2013. She also had a three-year-old boy named Mikey. Chickee had recently developed her idea and asked Jared to create the Velcro wrist wrap version of the linking system. Rana felt like she needed to do something to honor the memory of her sweet Hannah. When Chickee approached her about becoming a Linker and trying the new system out, she immediately wanted to become a volunteer heartbeat Linker for sick children. She specifically wanted to serve kids who had lost a mom, feeling like the link would be a completion—like two puzzle pieces fitting together—her as a mom who lost a child, and the child who lost a mom.

Mother’s Heartbeat started out as a community service for those whose moms had either died or were unavailable or unknown. As knowledge and success of efforts grew, Chickee aimed to make Mother’s Heartbeat a non-profit organization. She didn’t leave her teaching career until she was able to pull comparable income from the organization as she did from being in school nine months out of the year. The first two years, when she taught full time and worked to increase the load and number of Linkers working to link with hospitalized children, it was amazing she didn’t lose her mind. She prayed her teaching didn’t suffer too badly; she knew her heart had turned from teaching to linking, and things would never be the same.

Through the Mother’s Heartbeat non-profit organization, Chickee developed an entire network of moms who had lost children to connect with children without moms for hospital emergencies and chronic situations. The goal was to set up a system that insured if, in the event of a childhood emergency, a young person would already be on the list to link for healing. Very quickly, the research and data showed children who linked with a Linker for the first three days after their injury, surgery, or emergency were twice as likely to experience a full recovery as those who did not experience linking with a Mother’s Heartbeat Linker.

After Tommy’s accident in the barn fire, the choice to become a Linker was a natural step for Stella. She wanted to help the moms who felt so helpless as they watched their sick child in the hospital. She took to linking like a fish to water. Stella was often inclined to take the cases of older children and young teens. She also became Chickee’s greatest promoter and advocate to recruit new Linkers. Stella became one of the most active and reliable Linkers Chickee had. Their bond of friendship seemed to become even closer as they both strived for the common goal of filling a need in the lives of sick children.

Chapter 4

A Shepherd’s Heart Breaks

2014

Chickee was driving down the road on a spring afternoon. The trees were starting to bud, and the daffodil blooms were bowing heavy, bright yellow heads down to the ground. Up ahead in the distance, she noticed a huge plume of dark gray smoke. It seemed to be right around her friend Stella’s farmhouse. It could be evidence of a large brush pile burning, but the smoke seemed too dark. Stella and her husband Lee had raised sheep there for at least seventeen years. Their son, Tommy helped with the chores ever since he was barely old enough to walk. He loved the sheep herder’s life as much as his dad did. It seemed a very difficult and strenuous life to Chickee, but they loved it.

They had two barns. One was for wintering the flocks, and one was for storing hay, grain and equipment. Their farmhouse was about one hundred yards north of the winter barn, and was a traditional style Civil War era farmhouse. Stella and Lee and made some really nice upgrades in the home, so it suited them perfectly. To Chickee, the kitchen seemed small, even though they had completely remodeled and upgraded it to dark granite countertops and beautiful Spanish tile floors.

They had done some really neat things with Tommy’s loft room as well. It was mostly enclosed and the wooden beams were exposed along the ceiling. Single bare light bulbs hung down on pendants of various length, and gave the room an industrial feel. One wall of his room was lined with metal sheeting, and had become a magnetic board for all his many artistic efforts. And Tommy was quite an artist. He had an eye for the unusual and unique. He saw details others didn’t, and when he drew them out exaggerated, it created a dreamlike sense of artistic flair.

As Chickee drove closer to the farm, she suspected the worst. The smoke plume was too large and too dark to simply be a controlled brush fire. Then she heard the sirens. Oh dear. She knew she needed to stop. Although she wasn’t sure how she could help. She dialed the hospital and told them she would have to cancel her appointment for linking today. She knew she could call Jared later, after she figured out what the situation was here.

As she drove down the gravel driveway, she saw how much was consumed in fire and flame and she didn’t have any words. She saw Stella on the ground, on her knees with her hands pulling on her hair. As Chickee stopped the car, she parked off to the side and rushed across the gravel, over to her friend. She stood beside her, kneeling down and putting her hand on Stella’s shoulder. Tears pricked at the corners of her eyes. Stella? Lee? Are you guys okay? Where’s Tommy? Her own voice sounded frantic, like it belonged to somebody else. The sirens continually wailed louder as the fire truck turned into their driveway.

Stella didn’t even look at her. Instead, she rocked back and forth on her knees, her arms wrapped around her body and a grief stricken look of disbelief on her face. It looked like she was trying to keep herself together. She breathed in short, hiccupping gasps of air. She tried to answer Chickee, but the most heart-wrenching wail of grief was all that escaped her lips. She just held on and rocked herself while Chickee assessed the situation.

Tommy? He’s in there? Oh no! No! No! Stella confirmed Chickee’s suspicions with a nod of her head. Oh Stella! Chickee pulled her friend’s rocking body closer, and put an arm around her.

The fire truck pulled up close as it could to the burning winter barn, and several firemen jumped out as the big rig slowed to a stop. They flung open the hatches, pulled out lengths of hose, and rushed to tame the fire. Is there anyone inside? one fireman asked them with urgency.

Our son, Tommy! He rushed in to save several ewes with their lambs… Lee was standing behind Stella and Chickee. She