Letters

Support Group

The first thing that hit me was the hospital smell, clean like antiseptic and medicine. Then the sights hit me. The hall was huge with domed ceilings, tall windows, and marble walls and floor. It was split into two parts, on one side of the room was a long table filled with snacks and drinks and on the other side was a circle of chairs and a small podium that was pushed to the side a bit.

The last thing to hit me was the people. At the moment there were about 15 people, 9 of which must have been the patients with ALS. Some of them seemed almost normal, walking with only a slight tremor, but the majority of them showed signs of an illness. There were a couple people with wheel chairs, two with walkers, and one man carrying an oxygen tank and a walking stick. They ranged in age from the youngest looking about early 20s to the oldest looking around 60 or 70.

Not everyone looked as if they had ALS either. Many of the people looked like they had come with someone, some where wearing scrubs as if they were nurses, but others looked completely normal, wives, husbands, daughters, sons.

The utter sadness and hope of the situation hit me like a punch in the gut and I wanted to turn and run away from these people who were so sick they couldn't walk. I couldn't though; I owed this to them, to Charlotte and Andrés. They lived this life.

I heard Katherine's sharp intake of breath and looked over to see her face, also heavy with sadness. I drifted closer to her, craving comfort, and looked around, gathering the courage to walk farther into the room.

A sudden cheerful voice made me glance to the right. I was greeted with face of a middle-aged woman. She had strawberry blond hair, freckles and an open happy face. "Oh hi!" she said cheerfully extending her hand. Immediately I knew she must have been the voice on the phone. "I'm Diane Kleeker! You must be Ezequiel."

I nodded and shook her extended hand. "Yeah it's nice to meet you. You can call me Zeke, if you want, that's what most people call me."

She smiled brightly, almost forcefully. I wondered if you just had to keep smiling all the time in a position like hers. "Well, it's nice to meet you Zeke. Who is this?" She motioned to Katherine. I blinked and opened my mouth to introduce her, but she interrupted.

"I'm Katherine," she answered, returning Diane's smile with one of her own bright ones.

"Nice to meet you too, Katherine," Diane replied shaking her. "I'm so glad you guys are here! Not many people come to these meetings who don't know someone directly who had ALS." She glanced around and I followed her gaze. Almost everyone was talking and socializing around the table filled with food. A couple people had plates and were eating. "The first half of the meeting we usually just have refreshments and let everyone catch up. Then around 5:30 we all sit down and share stories." She turned back to us. "Sometimes the doctors will come too and talk about any new developments. You guys are welcome to talk to whomever you would like and feel free to take notes."

I glanced sideways at Katherine. She was silent her eyes roaming the room. I turned back to Diane. "Thank you so much. This will help us a lot with our school project."

She smiled warmly. "No problem. I'm just going to let you know before hand that the man over there," she motioned to a thin middle aged man with brown hair and glasses in a wheel chair who was shaking slightly. "That's Derek, he's unable to talk but he communicates with grunts and gestures to his wife." She motioned to a pretty woman standing next to him with kind-looking brown eyes and curly red hair, then turned and motioned to the other side of the room. "The woman in the purple, that's Fiona and she can't talk either." I followed her gaze to another woman with greying white hair and deep blue eyes. "We're trying to arrange money to buy a talking computer for her."