JANUARY 31–Small Potatoes in the World of Miracles

Caitlin here,

As you may know, I’ve been gracing your Facebook news feeds here and there with posts about my efforts to save the Prouty Garden at Boston Children’s Hospital.

Tom Farragher wrote a great column in today’s Boston Globe, bringing more, much-needed public awareness to the issue.  It’s a little awkward to see my name in dramatic print like this, but it;s an important issue. Many who care about the Prouty Garden are fighting illness and challenges that do not abate; they may not have the time or energy to speak up. This is not a situation that will simply resolve because people care—hospital boards are powerful entities. I urge people to please comment on the Globe article, and email SaveProuty@gmail.com to get involved.

To the thousands of doctors and patients who have gained sustenance from this natural garden, with its tall trees, birds, rabbits, and grassy lawn, this is akin to building over the Public Garden or Boston Common and replacing it with “parklets” all over the city—can you imagine?  Except now imagine further, that those parklets are not just enjoyable spots, where you take a little stroll or sit and read a book, but places where you must spend some of your most vital life moments—relearning how to live, or wondering if you won’t.

Since this is my blog I will be more candid here.  Look—we are talking about a building.  Construction, architecture.  Here is a hospital that claims to and does perform miracles on the daily– making the impossible happen.  I am not lacking in understanding of the need for clinical advances — I am waiting for a procedure that, each day I think about, “How will it be possible that they will put someone else’s organs into my body?”  I am in awe of, and grateful, for the miracle of science that I am waiting for.  Perhaps because I know what feats are possible in a seemingly impossible situation like mine, I know that finding another space for this clinical building is small potatoes in the world of miracles.  It comes down to a desire by the board, and money.  Previous boards were surely tempted by the space of the garden, in their plans for expansion over the years, and they resisted.

–Caitlin

Author: kittenupdates

I am the author of CASCADE and LITTLE MATCHES: A Memoir of Grief and Light View all posts by kittenupdates