Adieu my Bone Marrow, A Dieu

Adieu my dearest bone marrow. Go with God. My beautiful marrow that made my blood all of these 45 years. Carrying oxygen, carrying back CO2, finding cuts and providing scabs, regulating my temperature, bringing blood sugar so I can see again when I am blind with hunger, all of it - I am so grateful for all you have done for me. Thank you - you can rest now.

It is time to for us to say goodbye. We have had a really good run - my life is amazing, but it is time to let you go to God - A Dieu. It has become clear this last year that us parting is a good next step for my future of eating freshly picked strawberries and duck fat crispies.*

I am choosing the medical miracle of someone else’s bone marrow - in fact, two people’s. They won’t tell me who they are at this point. When all goes well in a few years, and if the donors agree, I might be able to send them a gift basket (“Thank you for my extended life, have some cheese!”). All I know at this point is that one of them is a 19 year old male from Europe with a tattoo and the other one is cord blood from a momma who was willing to donate such. I don’t know why these kind, beautiful, amazing people choose to join the Bone Marrow Registry - but I am thrilled they did.

Dear 19 year old, thank you for schlepping over to New York in the middle of winter. Thank you for taking the shots to increase your production of bone marrow stem cells - sometimes the medicine can be uncomfortable - I hope that wasn’t true in your case. Thank you for sitting in a medical room for many hours while a machine filtered the stem cells out of your blood. Thank you for your time, the disruption to your life, your physical discomfort, your huge heart, and, yes, your cells. I see your cells infused with this heart and dedication - a physical manifestation of your Love.

Dear cord blood Momma - you are giving me the lifeblood that created your child so that I might see my grandchildren. I am extending my Momma hug across the ethers to let you know that I honor and treasure what you have done. I see the cord blood pulsing and ballooning with Divine energy - the energy of life, potential, creation, new beginnings. Thank you.

I promise to live my life to the fullest to repay the life you are giving me. I promise to suck the marrow, revel, embrace, and grow.

I thank you.

My husband thanks you.

My children thank you.

*For those of you not yet devoted to duck fat crispies, let me elaborate. First you get a duck from the Farmers’ Market. You roast it. You eat the best dinner ever.

At the end of the evening, you strip off all of the extra skin and the meat so that you can make bone broth. The next few days you can take this leftover skin (I am thinking mostly of the extra full flap of skin that extends off the breast) - throw it into a frying pan, cut it into small pieces, render off the extra 1/2 cup of fat, and eat the crispies on salad/quinoa/plain. Insanely amazing.