June 14, 2008

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  Remember the steady parade of people from my past?  Another one walked by.  I was having lunch with my sister when I saw J. through the window.  She was the head reader and ruler of the court reporting school I attended for five years.  It should have been four but I decided to tackle real time and that added another year.  Plus, all the surgeries slowed me down.  My plastic surgeon made me take two months off after he put the implants in because he didn’t want me lugging my computer and steno machine up and down the many steep steps to my house.  After each surgery I would have to go back to the speed I’d finally passed and start over. 

  Even though we spent all those years as enemies we respected each other and when it looked like I was finally going to graduate she bought me a present, which she presented after I got my first 225 (wpm).  You needed two to graduate but my oncologist said I had to quit so she gave me the necklace anyway.  In the parking lot she told me I was the only one she’d ever done that with.  She said, “that should give you some idea how I felt about you.” 

  This woman was hardnosed and we disagreed.  She wanted us to write to sound, phonetically, but I was a “briefer.”  There were those of us who made up our own language and, especially for “jury,” would take commonly used phrases like burden of proof and make it burp.  I had briefs for everything and people were always asking me how I wrote something which drove her nuts. 

  I had no idea she liked me.  At the graduation ceremonies she would always present her little gift.  This was out of her own pocket and the jewelry was nice.  I used to wonder about that because it was so out of character.  That was before I got to know her.

  Not that I ever really did.  After the divorce when I bought my house and had finished chemo, I had a big party to celebrate.  I invited some of my friends from school, which included her son, so I kind of had to ask her, too.  I was terribly fond of K.  He taught the medical classes and read Q and A with her for the 225s.  That’s when two people read from a deposition, one taking the part of the lawyer and one reading the voice of the person being deposed.  They have to read at exactly 225 words per minute, then bump it up to 240.  There are VERY few people who are able to do that, and this mother and son were quite a team.  He also read lit (congressional record) for night school, and I would sit in with his classes when I was getting close to passing a test.  We would chat after class so I got to know him pretty well.     

  She was so surprised because she had just been thinking about me.  I was a little creeped out because it seems like these people are coming out of the woodwork, all at the same time.  And what’s interesting is that they are all people I would characterize as significant.  They all played a huge part in my life, with the exception of the high school guy.  I hope this isn’t something like my life’s passing before my eyes. 

  I gave her my number and told her to bring K.when she meets me for lunch sometime. I’m definitely going to do a character sketch on him.  Talk about unique.  She brought her husband to the party, too, and we were all shocked.  That’s when I figured out who she really was.  She had this whole professional image thing going on where she thought she had to act like a hardass for some reason.  She’s lost a bunch of weight and looked ten years younger when I saw her Wednesday.  Can’t wait to hear her story.

  • 3:28 am
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