Service Tails

by Collins, Ace;

  The asthma and recurrent infections that had plagued her in childhood returned with a vengeance. With no warning it would be all but impossible for the young woman to breathe. The attacks grew more and more frequent and violent, some happening while she was out in public. When combined with the vertigo and hearing loss, the asthma made her all but homebound. She was in bed more than she was up, and because of her inactivity, she began to put on more weight. That weight gain further aggravated her other health issues. Within months she had become mor-bidly obese, which made her asthma attacks even worse and the vertigo more dangerous.

  The woman whose life once had such great promise could no longer get out of her home without help, and just walking from room to room was a monumental accomplishment. Unable to hear the phone ring or understand her parents’ voices, alone in a world without sound, she was depressed and lonely. Rather than level off or get better, her condition continued to worsen. As she grew heavier, doctors suggested the family prepare for a funeral.

  Though there were times she could hardly breathe, though she was cut off from the music of the world and all but homebound, Cristina was not a quitter. She’d worked hard to get through college, and throughout her life, her dynamic determination had allowed her to knock down every roadblock. Her doctors were amazed by the way she fought back from infections that would have been fatal for most people. But the sad fact was that they had done all they could do. For Cristina to live just a few more years, she was going to need a miracle, and that miracle would not come through medical science.

  When all hope is gone, where do you look for answers? As she struggled to breathe and walk, Cristina thought back to the babies she had rocked. They were plunged into a world in which their own mothers craved a drug more than the love of their child. It was no wonder these babies cried so much. They were fighting for life and calling out for love and acceptance. And yet they grew quiet and calm in Cristina’s arms. In a way, she gave them security, hope, and a sense of value. If only someone could do that for her.

  The past few months of illness had reshaped Cristina’s vision of the world. When she tried to communicate with people in stores, because of her hearing loss, most had no patience in dealing with her. They often treated the incredibly gifted woman as if she were stupid. The vertigo and breathing issues also drove people away from her. The fact that her illnesses had caused a great weight gain brought both judgment and ridicule. She longed for hope and acceptance, but no one seemed to offer either. Each day she found herself more isolated, and it seemed there was nothing that could be humanly done to change that depressing fact.

  Cristina and her parents were at the end of their ropes when a Canine Companions’ volunteer puppy raiser from Ohio suggested she look into getting a hearing dog. While that dog couldn’t fix her vertigo or cure her asthma, because of its special training, it could become her ears. Realizing her deafness was keeping her from fully noticing the world around her, Cristina contacted Canine Companions for Independence. The organization interviewed Cristina, studied her medical issues, and agreed to work with her. In June of 2011, hope and acceptance came in the form a black Labrador/golden retriever mix named Tatiana.

  As she walked up to meet Cristina, the dog’s eyes were filled with love. She didn’t care about Cristina’s weight or her inability to hear. She was there to offer love and service, and from the minute she came through the door, her focus was on the woman she’d been sent to help. Within an hour the bond had been formed, and it was all but impossible to pry Tatiana from the sick woman’s side. Yet it would be over the next few days that the power of the dog’s long and extensive training was completely revealed.

  Since she had lost almost all her hearing, Cristina had been on an island. She couldn’t hear and therefore didn’t notice much of what was going on inside her home or outside the front door. Now, thanks to Tatiana, when the phone rang, Cristina immediately found out. She also was alerted when someone was at the door, the microwave was finished cooking, or the alarm clock buzzed. When they ventured outside, Tatiana did something even more special; she opened up a line of communication. Because of the dog’s wagging tail and lopsided grin, people were attracted to her. Thus, rather than grow impatient when trying to communicate with the deaf woman, they listened more intently and were glad to slowly repeat anything Cristina didn’t understand. This unexpected bonus brought bright rays of sunshine into what had become a very dark and lonely world. For the first time in what seemed like forever, the woman was being accepted by society. Working in tandem with a canine does not happen overnight. While the dog can perform all the tasks taught at school and thus greatly enhance the life of its partner, it is only when the canine grows to really know the human’s personality that the real magic begins.

  The first time Tatiana showed any signs of real distress was when Cristina experienced a bout of vertigo and tumbled to the ground. As Tatiana had been trained to be Cristina’s ears, the dog was simply not prepared for this. Frantic and worried, Tatiana stayed with the woman until she was able to stand. Still anxious and likely confused, the dog then walked the woman back to safety. The next time the vertigo struck, the results were the same. Tatiana was concerned, obviously troubled, and confused. Yet even though the episodes upset her, the dog never shied away.

  A few days later, Cristina was walking outside the house when, for no apparent reason, Tatiana pushed her toward a bench. As the woman was breathing easily and completely focused on the world around her, she didn’t want to sit down. The dog wouldn’t give up, continuing to use her shoulder to gently direct Cristina to a spot she felt she needed to be. A few seconds after she sat down, the vertigo, which was initially caused by Ménière’s disease, hit. Only after it passed did Cristina begin to wonder if Tatiana had somehow sensed the attack was coming. A few days later, when the dog again forced the woman to take a seat just before an attack hit, it was obvious the dog read something in Cristina’s body language that even she couldn’t read.

  The knowledge that Tatiana could alert Cristina to a fire alarm, a siren, or a coming storm, as well as warn her before vertigo stuck, brought a great deal of security to the home. No longer did Alexander and Teresa have to worry about leaving their daughter alone. And thanks to Cristina no longer taking tumbles during attacks, the young woman was escaping life-threatening injuries. How the dog became a ver-tigo forecaster is something that no one, including the trainers at Canine Companions, could explain. Yet this adaptive skill would pale when compared to the dog’s next intuitive action.

  Just a month after Tatiana came into Cristina’s life, the woman began having such severe breathing issues, brought on by another infection, that her parents took her to the emergency room. The medical staff treated Cristina and kept her under observation until her body signs returned to normal. Once they were convinced the crisis had passed, she was sent home. Except for a bit of weakness, the woman felt fine when she went to bed. As had become her habit, Tatiana took her place beside the woman she served.

  It was around 3:00 a.m. when the dog put her front paws on the bed and nosed Cristina. Tatiana’s actions were not unusual; she often rose on her hind legs to check on the woman. Though no one will ever know if it was through observation or some type of instinctive sense, the dog rushed from the room and raced through the home to the bedroom where Cristina’s parents were sleeping. The suddenly shocked couple was awakened by frantic nudging, which Tatiana was trained to do to alert Cristina to sounds, and the body language of a canine that obviously wanted them to follow her. As the couple rose from their bed, the black dog rushed back to Cristina’s room with the parents jogging behind. As Alexander flipped on the lights, his heart sank. His daughter was deathly still, her face pale and her lips almost blue. Checking her pulse, he discovered that her heart had stopped and she wasn’t breathing. As Teresa called the EMTs, he began to administer CPR, but Cristina was still showing no signs of life when the ambulance arrived.

  With a frantic dog and two worried p
arents looking on, the paramedics quickly went to work; and within a minute, their patient was breathing. Once she was stabilized, the ambulance rushed Cristina to the hospital. After examining the woman, the emergency room physician assured Alexander and Teresa their daughter should make a full recovery, but if she’d gone without help for a minute more, she would surely have suffered brain damage. It was at that moment the dog’s role as a lifesaver was fully realized.

  The severe, silent, and almost fatal asthma attack kept Cristina in the hospital for a week. When she finally returned home, all she wanted to do was remain in her bed, but the dog had other ideas. In Tatiana’s mind it was time to get moving.

  It was time to meet more challenges. The bacterial infection had forced the woman to give up on a dream. And although she still had numerous health issues, soon after receiving Tatiana, Cristina decided to return to school and study for her master’s degree at Purdue University. Her health was still fragile, her recurrent infections and asthma attacks still created severe issues, and she was legally deaf. Could someone with all those obstacles live independently and find a way to succeed at school? The logical answer was a resounding no. But in truth she wasn’t doing this alone, and Tatiana would be with her every step of the way. With the dog by her side, the woman was convinced she could beat the odds. When Cristina was asked how she could balance all her health issues with a full school schedule, she explained she was just trying to keep up with her role model, Tatiana. Time and time again the woman told her friends, “The dog epitomizes pure, selfless, and unconditional love. She lives in the moment, accepts people for who they are, and simply loves life. She is loyal and dependable and never holds grudges. If I could be half the person my dog is, I’d be twice the human I am.” In other words, Tatiana saw the woman’s potential and kept pushing her to reach it.

  In 2012, the American Humane Association named Tatiana the “Hearing Hero Dog of the Year.” The black canine was singled out for saving her master’s life. But the dog had done far more than that. She had reawakened Cristina’s dreams, gotten her back into the world, and rebirthed her confidence, which led to the woman receiving her master’s degree in biomedical engineering. Tatiana had become so well known and loved at Purdue, she led the woman across the stage when Purdue awarded the dog an honorary master’s degree in friendship and guidance.

  During this time, Cristina’s sister had become a runner and was constantly training for everything from 5Ks to half marathons. When her sister invited them to cheer her on, it inspired Cristina to begin exercising, and she was hooked. With her dog leading the way and pacing her, over the next few months the walking turned into slow jogging. The more she exercised, the better she felt; and this motivated Cristina to push even harder. Ten pounds lost became twenty, twenty became fifty, and in a matter of two years, Cristina had lost more than one hundred and seventy pounds and was running 5Ks with her sister.

  Though she still is learning to live with deafness, though she is still plagued by attacks of both recurrent infections and heart issues, Cristina is running half marathons and has become an advocate for disabil-ity awareness and the use of service animals. She also works with people going through some of the same medical issues that have caused so much strife in her own life. She tells those struggling to get through the dark days, “While I know that I am in no way a failure, I cannot help but feel unaccomplished since my health issues constantly slow me down and have kept me from fulfilling my original goals and plans. So I may not be the person I thought I should be with the career I thought I should have, but I know in my heart that I am the person I was meant to be and can only hope that will inspire others to be the same.”

  And why has Cristina been able to reach so many with this message of hope? It is because of a dog that saved her life twice: the first time when she stopped breathing and the second time when Tatiana pushed her out of bed and back into living a full life. It took a team to make it happen, and the story is really just beginning.

  Memories

  Memories are the best things in life, I think.

  Romy Schneider

  The roads less traveled often lead us to unforgettable memories. Shared experiences along those roads create the most compelling memories. It is by holding onto those memories that we come to appreciate life fully.

  More than six decades ago, Allen and Sharon Friedman met while students at the University of Minnesota. In the midst of football games, dances, and winter walks on campus, love bloomed. After two years of dating and Allen’s graduation, they married and began a life filled with love and adventure. Allen served two years as an officer in the Medical Service Corps and then did his graduate study in public administration. He then became a city manager before becoming a court administrator and finally the manager of a law firm.

  Sharon, who devoted her life to social work, raised three daughters in a world without boundaries. They swam with manatees in Florida, went scuba diving with green moray eels in the Atlantic Ocean, photographed bears in Wyoming’s Grand Tetons, sailed yachts in the Great Lakes and the Atlantic, and rode motorcycles across the Midwest. They viewed the places where history was made and gained perspective and appreciation for a wide variety of music, culture, and art. When Allen obtained his pilot’s license and the couple purchased a plane, the family found an even greater freedom that expanded their already wide horizon. Trips that used to take days via car now took hours. Simply put, theirs was a life of their own design balanced between enjoying the wonders of the world in their free time and serving the needs of people through their work.

  Not too many years after Allen and Sharon were married, Bill Withers wrote a song that was taken to the top of the rock-and-roll charts by Ben E. King. “Lean on Me” embraced a theme that was simple, direct, and positive. People simply couldn’t make it by themselves. They had to have folks they could trust to help them through the tough times. In his song, Withers captured the essence of the magic that bound Allen and Sharon together. Their natural ability to lean on each other had seen them through the good times and would soon define a new phase of their lives.

  It has long been noted that time flies when you’re having fun, and such was the case with the Friedmans’ lives. The years rushed by as they were constantly on the go, eternally active, and always thirsty to experience new things. Thus, their fiftieth anniversary caught them by surprise. Even with such a long list of adventures behind them, there were still so many more exploits to plan. Best of all, without the demands of a job, they had even more free time on their hands to enrich their lives and experience. Though they were in their seventies, it was time to make more memories.

  At the core of the couple’s existence was optimism. They believed their love brought with it a passion for life and a formula for youth. They sensed their life was a product of that love, and their touching others with hope and compassion symbolized an extension of that love. The couple was a team. When they were together, the bond was obvious. They almost moved and reacted as one. They also encouraged, supported, and pushed each other. They had no idea that the team approach that had so naturally and wonderfully shaped their lives would become so important in allowing Sharon to hang onto the memories they had created.

  As the couple made new plans, Allen began to notice little things that didn’t seem quite right. Sharon was suffering occasional memory lapses, which stood in direct contrast with her sharp mind that always kept him on track. As her mental lapses became more frequent, he began to worry. After a trip to the doctor, the test results delivered an almost unbelievable verdict. Sharon had the beginnings of Alzheimer’s. Just hearing that word can be numbing, but then applying it to the one you love is crushing. Suddenly, making new memories didn’t seem as important as hanging onto the ones they already had.

  Alzheimer’s, the cause of over half the dementia found in older people, is a chronic neurodegenerative disease that begins slowly, almost like a child learning to crawl, and over time, picks up speed. Sharon’s disease was sp
otted because she was having difficulty remembering recent events, but the couple was told that, as time passed, the disease would also lead to mood swings and complete withdrawal. Worst of all, there was no known cause and absolutely no cure.

  In spite of the overwhelming nature of facing Sharon’s life expectancy of only three to nine years, the Friedmans had an advantage that most could not claim. Thanks in large part to Allen’s noting the initial and very subtle changes in his wife’s responses, Sharon’s Alzheimer’s had been diagnosed early. Likely even more important was that the Mayo Clinic was in their backyard. Thus, they had access to the best doctors, latest research, and breakthrough medications.

  Reaction, response, and attitude are huge keys in facing any life issue. Sharon knew that from her years in social work. Thus, rather than hunker down and wait for the worst, the Friedmans optimistically relished each new day they were given and continued the life and adventures they had already planned. Amazingly, as the months turned into years, somehow the disease was kept at bay, and Sharon continued to enjoy life much as she had before the diagnosis. Ultimately, it wasn’t the Alzheimer’s but something far different that threatened to push her away from the active life she still relished.

  Back pain restricted her mobility. Surgery, which was supposed to help, only made matters worse. Just moving a certain way brought on shooting pain that caused her to lose her balance. Because her back created problems with movement, Sharon also couldn’t see or gauge when pavement was uneven or there was a drop-off in her path. Her stumbling created sudden jolts that brought on numbing pain. Allen didn’t feel it was safe for his wife to walk around the house or yard without him being there to catch her if she stumbled or help her up if she fell. So essentially he became Sharon’s crutch, and she constantly had to lean on him. Unable to be there for her every moment of every day and wanting to keep the door of independence somewhat open for Sharon, Allen began to look for alternatives.