The other night I was watching The Good Doctor, a television show about an autistic doctor and his co-workers.
This episode centered around a 13 year old boy that had already lost one eye to cancer and was having the other one removed.
He would become blind in order to live.
The day before his surgery, he snuck out of the hospital to try to see things one last time.
Two of the residents found him and decided to make that last sighted day one he would always remember.
They took him to a major league baseball game. They let him drive a car around an empty parking lot and down country roads. He looked at pictures and statues.
Then he asked for them to stop at a strip club so he could see a naked woman for the first and last time.
They tried, but the security guard wouldn’t be swayed by the teenage boy or the two women doctors.
I can understand why. In this world we live in right now, doing something like that could lead to them losing their licence and being shut down due to exposing a minor or some other charge.
That’s just the way it is.
Of course, the boy was disappointed and said, “Well, at least I tried to see boobs once in my life.”
He tried. He was turned down. There wasn’t anything else he could do about it.
The morning of his surgery, his parents talked to him and comforted him as he searched their eyes, memorizing their faces and his own.
One last look.
Do you ever think about that?
One last look. What if you could only see someone you loved one last time? See their smile, the dimples, the twinkle in their eyes… The way they walk, the features of their face, the shape of their hands?
Think about the things you look at every day without really thinking about it.
The petals of a flower. The clouds in the sky. The butterfly and the bumblebee.
We take those things for granted, don’t we?
Just like a teenage boy would take for granted that someday he would get to see boobs.
This boy didn’t get to see boobs, though, on his very last day with sight.
At least that’s what he thought.
Then, a surprising, wonderful, completely unprofessional thing happened.
One of the residents that had spent the day showing him as much as possible came back into his room.
She said,”I forgot to do something.”
“What?,” he asked.
” Shut up!” She replied, and lifted her scrub top over her head, exposing her boobs.
The look on his face was priceless.
The first look and the last look, all at once.
That’s one of those times when rules and regulations get pushed aside for very good reason.
Compassion. Empathy. Understanding.
She made a choice that would have been disastrous for her medical career if she had been caught, but she chose anyway.
She chose to give a teenage boy be something he would never forget.
Boobs.
Sometimes that’s all that matters.
👣♥️ Jeanna’ Mead
7 45 a.m. 6.29.20
