“Fed by Thy love divine we live,

For Love alone is Life; 

And life most sweet, as heart to heart

Speaks kindly when we meet and part.“

– Mary Baker Eddy

***

As a young child, a loved one suffered heart damage as a result of rheumatic fever. Apparently she was supposed to have lived a quiet and sheltered life. She did not. She climbed Mount Rainier twice, got married, birthed and raised three children, traveled, sang, gardened, hiked, taught, and led a very full and active life.Last week, eighty years after the rheumatic fever,  this loved one finally underwent open heart surgery to repair her heart.

The surgery was performed at a hospital two hours to the south of where I live. When I was booking a room in a hotel near there – The Inn at Gig Harbor – I mentioned that I was going to be…