Last summer I heard Wesla Whitfield, a renowned jazz singer perform at a fundraiser sponsoring horse training for disable children. I was surprised when she rolled onto the stage in her wheelchair. An automobile accident when she was younger had paralyzed her legs. She didn’t let that stop her. Her performance was passionate, riveting, and held me spell bound. At the end of the show, another woman in a wheelchair rolled in and handed Welsa a bouquet of flowers and brought the audience to tears. When she had been in the hospital, having also had a severe accident paralyzing her, Wesla had spent hours at her side encouraging her to go on. Her story, while miraculous and fascinating, is not entirely unique. Simple people do amazing things everyday. Erik Weihenmayer was born with retinoscheses, a degenerative eye disorder that left him blind at 13. Erik was determined to rise above his disabilities. In his book, “Touch The Top of The World,” he shares his struggles to stretch beyond his boundaries to overcome the restrictions placed upon him. His dream was to climb the world’s biggest peaks, an extraordinary achievement for those even with sight. Erik has now climbed the tallest peaks in the world, and my last e-mail from him indicated he was going back with a group of blind climbers. My mother experienced a miracle as well. She lived with me for the last eight months of her life, and her lung cancer spread rapidly. One weekend, I brought mom to the emergency room. Her oncologist advised me to call my acim family to her side, because her death was near. I called my friend Dr. Awender, an old school chiropractor. Dr. Awender adjusted one bone in mom’s neck and told her that he had turned on her body’s healing power. My husband and I went for Sunday brunch, down the street to the Santa Fe Bar and Grill close to my Berkeley practice. When we returned to the hospital, my mother was sitting up in bed, demanding to be released.
And this wasn’t her only miracle. One day she told me she almost died. “I went through a rather immense glowing tunnel towards a blinding light. There were magnificent radiant beings on both sides who asked me if I was ready to come home. I told them no, because I still needed to reconcile with my sister, Pearl, and my daughter, Hildy.” According to my mother, her body became as light as a feather. The pain disappeared, and she experienced an extraordinary sense of love and well-being. She was granted permission to return in order to mend her relationships before she passed on. Mom finally died when she was ready to go. She held my hand in my home while we listened to her favorite music.