Lasse Burholt... Everywhere! | | Inspiration Is Around Us
I set the manuscript on my wife's night table as we left to go rollerblading, not knowing she would never come home - never sleep in her bed again.
Teresa lost control on her rollerblades and fell. She suffered a brain injury from the impact and was rushed to the hospital. The initial prognosis was bad, but not devastating. The frontal lobes of her brain were bruised and there was some swelling. She would live, but recovery would take time and it would take incredible patience. We were warned numerous times that brain injuries are not like a broken leg. Damage to the brain can change the person. My four sons and I were ready for whatever person accompanied us home from the hospital. We loved Teresa. It was simple, really.
But things didn't go as the doctors hoped. The swelling did not stop, and since the brain is enclosed in the skull, there's not a lot of space for swelling. Over a five day period, Teresa's brain slowly imploded. Tiny strokes, caused by pressure on the blood vessels, destroyed portions of her brain. Memory - sight - personality. It finally reached a point where the damage was so severe, I realized I wanted my wife to die.
I would never wish that moment on anyone.
To this day, I can't talk about it, or write about it, without tears. It was, without even the slightest doubt, the worst moment of my life.
Teresa did not live. Five days after she fell, she died of her injuries. I held her hand as her heart stopped. I cried. Oh, God, how I cried. I had lost my wife, my children's mother, my best friend. But worse than that, Teresa had lost her life.
Her wants, her hopes, her dreams - were gone. Finished before she could reach her goals. She was an attractive woman, whose true beauty lie inside. She was an intelligent woman, who found innovative ways to help others. She was a tenacious woman, who fought for fairness and equality.
And she was gone.
I called the media and they responded. The story was in the Calgary Herald, on all the local television stations and across the country on Canada AM. The gist of the story was simple - wear helmets. Teresa may have lived had we been wearing helmets.
Admitting you made a fatal mistake in front of an entire country is not easy. But I felt, in my heart, it was necessary. If it saved one life...just one.
I walked into the bedroom a few days after her funeral and stood on her side of the bed. The manuscript was exactly where I had placed it two weeks earlier. It was the eighth book I had written, a thriller like the other seven.
I tucked the book in a drawer and didn't write again for a year. The motivation - the passion for what I truly loved doing - was gone.
Until I met a woman who changed my life. She worked for a children's hospital foundation and often spoke in public. She needed a new speech. The old one had been around the block a few times and was getting a bit worn. I wrote that speech, then another, and another. What had been a passion before Teresa's death, was reinvigorated. I was writing again.
And I was inspired.
Inspired by the sick and injured children in the hospital who met their illness with such courage and determination.
Inspired by the incredible woman who delivered my speeches - who captivated audiences and raised money to benefit the children.
Inspired by the men and women who donated so generously to the hospital.
And once the inspiration started, I couldn't stop it.
All around me I saw wonderful things happening. People caring for other people - pushing their wheelchairs when they couldn't walk - feeding them when they couldn't eat- reading to them when they couldn't hold the book.
Mothers and fathers loving their babies.
People smiling at strangers. Saying thank you. Holding doors open.
Inspiration was all around me.
I continued to write the speeches. I started, and finished, a new book. Then six more.
And in what would make another Friday story, secured a New York publisher. I guess it's fitting that the first book they published was the one sitting on Teresa's night table when she died.
The next time you walk out your front door, take a minute and look about. Inspirations is all about you. It's everywhere.
It's in a child's eyes. It's in an old man's handshake. It's in a smile from the cashier at the grocery store.
I'm inspired by the goodness in people. By their kindness. By their caring. You don't have to look all that deep to see it.
And inspiration is in memories.
For me, the memory of Teresa is an inspiration.
An inspiration that I'll take with me for the rest of my life.
Jeff Buick
Jeff Buick is the best-selling author of four thrillers - Bloodline, Lethal Dose, African Ice and Shell Game. His fifth book, Delicate Chaos, is due out through Dorchester Publishing in February of 2008. Jeff has written, and donated, over seventy speeches to the Stollery Children's Hospital Foundation in Edmonton, Alberta. Jeff can be reached by visiting his website, http://www.jeffbuick.com
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