Update from Blogger Lisa Fuchs...

From her home office in San Mateo, here is a live update from Lisa Segre Fuchs who visited Bonnie last week in MN. She wanted me to point out that Bonnie is looking for a visitor from 9/11 to 9/16. Here's Lisa's report:

I visited Bonnie in Minneapolis last week and was totally amazed! She looked terrific—still sporting her summer tan, energetic and talkative, and happy to have visitors. Life as O+ (from A blood type) seems to suit her! The “proverbial drill” at this hospital is a bit different from UCSF. She’s able to eat just about anything she wants including fresh fruit. I have to say that hearing Bonnie describe eating her sandwich at lunch on the first day was well worth the visit. She appreciates life to its fullest!
Another difference between this hospital and UCSF is that Bonnie is restricted to her room. As a result, she has a treadmill in her room for exercise and she’s made a room smaller than her Burlingame bedroom into her home. Importantly, she’s able to receive care packages with food and other goodies…..but still NO FLOWERS OR PLANTS.

Proudly displayed in the corner is a life-size photo of Isabel and Devon—a gift from Little Wonders. When Mike pleaded his case with the airlines regarding this rather large carry-on item, they acquiesced and stored it in the cockpit of the plane for the duration of the flight. I can’t imagine that the FAA would be too pleased with this exception, but it seems like everyone wants to help Bonnie! In addition, a multitude of other photos of the girls and Mike adorn her walls.

Over her bed hangs a dream-catcher, a fairy and a few other goodies that friends have sent her with good wishes. Hanging on the window is a line of rope that has some of the girls’ artwork, good luck faxes & cards as well as a few other items of note. Bonnie’s friend Abbey has given her a Tibetan prayer shawl that a mutual friend of theirs wore when he climbed Mt. Everest. I believe it’s been blessed by someone important, perhaps even the Dalai Lama himself?

She’s teaching herself to knit and keeping up-to-date on the antics of Jennifer and Brad. While I was there, she down-loaded 1500 songs onto her ipod…it took about 36 hours…needless to say, she’s doing her best to keep entertained. The other notable thing about my visit was how incredible her friends are being. Even though she’s off in Minnesota, the phone range about every five minutes with yet another friend checking in. Although she doesn’t always have the energy to answer, she smiles every time the phone rings, and I know she greatly appreciates feeling connected to the Bay Area, her friends and children. As one who is guilty of not connecting as regularly as I should, it made me feel great that her large net of friends continue to hold her secure in their hearts.

She has two poems hanging in her room that she wanted to share with everyone:

The first, entitled “Doubletake”, was read by the hospital Chaplain, Judy (Judy has been a great source of inspiration and healing for Bon), on the day of her transplant:

In celebration of intention, love, hope and healing…

Bonnie Tonneson

University of Minnesota Medical Center, Fairview
August 4, 2005

Doubletake

Human beings suffer,
they torture one another,
they get hurt and get hard.
No poem or play or song
can fully right a wrong
inflicted and endured.

The innocent in goals
beat on their bars together.
A hunger-striker’s father
stands in the graveyard dumb.
The police widow in veils
faints at the funeral home.

History says, don’t hope
on this side of the grave.
But then, once in a lifetime
the longed for tidal wave
of justice can rise up,
and hope and history rhyme.

So hope for a great sea-change
on the far side of revenge.
Believe that a further shore
is reachable from here.
Believe in miracles
and cures and healing wells.

Call the miracle self-healing:
The utter self-revealing
double-take of feeling.
If there’s fire on the mountain
or lightning and storm
and a god speaks from the sky.

That means someone is hearing
the outcry and the birth-cry
of new life at its term.

Seamus Heaney,
The Cure at Troy


The other reading that Bonnie has by her bedside is one that her Aunt Hope wrote for her. Aunt Hope writes: The process of IV’s and injecting droplets into the body inspired this prayer. The droplets are like the dewdrops of which the Bible regards as the symbol of healing. This prayer is for bone marrow transplants:

Ribbono shel Olam, Master of the Universe,…. Harahaman, O Merciful One, open the gates of your wondrous storehouse releasing your sparkling dew.

Droplets of life, flow gently, mending the hurt in this body and watering the vines of this broken garden.

Droplets of blessing, come gently, fetching years of goodness, filling with peace the reservoir of the soul.

Droplets of dew, heal gently, softening this hard place of blessing, giving praise to the work of our Creator. For you, Bonnie, are a work of God’s creation..a beautiful and intricate flow of mystery and love.

Droplets of dew,
Come for a blessing,
Come for life,
Come bringing plenty.

Baruch atah Adonai, rofeh haholim. Blessed is the Divine, Source of all healing.

Thanks, Lisa, for your update- Gib