Urgent Care

Urgent Care plays an important role in the life of an Augustson. It allows us to be spontaneous in addressing our health care needs, and provides convenient after-hours access. I'm guessing these attributes aren't part of the mission of Urgent Care, but it's the reality for these working parents. In fact, we frequent urgent care so often that Annika refers to the entire medical building as Urgent Care, and when she noticed that the Columbia logo on her jacket resembled the Park Nicollet logo, she began referring to it as her Urgent Care jacket assuming that was where I had bought it.

The week that we lost our home, something remarkable happened during our visit to Urgent Care. Marit had a terrible cold and pain in both ears. With tears welling up in my eyes, I began to explain to our nurse why we had too much stress in our lives for her to suffer in this way. Before I could finish my sentence, the nurse lunged forward to grab my knee, and exclaimed, "We were meant to meet today! You saved my life!!"

My mouth dropped open as we stared at each other and I waited for her to explain. "What do you mean by that, exactly?"

Michele went on to explain that the night before, she had smelled gas in her house and realized that her water heater wasn't working. She immediately thought of our family and ran out of her house, grabbing only her dog and her slippers. A short time later, CenterPoint arrived to discover dangerous levels of gas in her home and a furnace and water heater that would need to be replaced. With a husband deployed in Afghanistan, the expense was painful, but minor in comparison to how tragic it could have been.

Michele's feeling of connection to me was sincere. To say that I had saved her life was much too generous, but I was overwhelmed at that moment with the chance of our meeting, with the possibility that there was a silver lining to our cloud, and with the true compassion and appreciation this woman was offering me. She had all of the right words, and counseled me like she was my guardian angel. I am usually a very private person when it comes to my faith, but I felt God's presense and assurance in that moment like never before.

Michele later e-mailed me the journal entry she had written the night of her gas leak. She wrote with gratitude and relief and a confirmation of her faith. In her e-mail, she said, "I know that this whole ordeal will draw your family together and you will experience a special love and support from your community, complete strangers, and family and friends, that most people will not have the opportunity to experience."

I will always remember that moment and Michele's words, and look forward to seeing her often in Urgent Care.

Book Club

I am so excited for my book club to meet this week. The last time we met was February 23, a day that didn't turn out anything like I expected.

We were supposed to meet at my house. None of us were too excited about the book we'd read, but getting together was half of the fun. My house was clean and ready. Matt was out of town, but I would be able to get the girls to bed while my friends poured the wine and settled in for a good discussion.

I barely remember the call to Amy. I was sitting in my co-worker's car, blocks away from our house, and still hadn't seen the site with my own eyes. Book club will need to be canceled...you might be able to see it on TV...I don't really know what I said, but I remember how incredulous the words sounded as they came out of my mouth.

I spent the next hour or two trying to get information from the police, watching the scene on TV with other neighbors, checking in with the vet about Grete's status, and responding to calls, text messages, emails, and Facebook messages about whether everyone was OK. It was surreal. I had no idea what I should be doing.

Later that night, my friends came to visit me at my parent's house. They brought clothes and supplies and the cake they had planned to surprise me with for my birthday. But most of all they brought me comfort.

Book club will be at another friend's house this week, and hopefully it will be a fun and completely uneventful night. Now, I just need to finish the book!

Rebuilding

Building a house. It sounds daunting when it isn't something we ever planned to do, much less have to do at this point in our lives. But so far, this part of our recovery is going as well as we could hope.

We found a great builder who has expertise in working with insurance claims, and was also recommended by neighbors. We have two architects who contacted us through an Ole connection and share our interest in preserving the character of the neighborhood in our new home. Together, we are a team of five who now meet almost weekly, usually at our architects' office in International Market Square. We've given ourselves a challenging deadline: permit-ready plans by May 17, with a goal to start building in early June. If we can work effectively together, be efficient decision makers, and schedule work in a timely manner, and all of the planets are aligned, we might be able to move into our new home by Christmas. It is a stretch, but we might as well be optimistic.

Many people have asked me if the new house will look the same as our old house. This isn't likely, as city codes have changed. We also have an opportunity to correct a deficiency in our old house - our single car garage. The placement of a two car garage was the first big decision we made, along with whether to appeal to City Council for a curb cut on 50th. We've opted for a plan that won't require the variance and will be the best way to optimize our backyard, with the garage at the back of the lot and a long driveway to Arden Avenue. This appears to be the norm on lots of our size in the neighborhood.

We have many more decisions ahead, much to learn about the process, and hopefully some fun, too.

Rising to the occasion

When something heartbreaking or difficult happens to someone I know I often struggle to think of a truly meaningful way to help. That’s why I’ve been so impressed with the ingenuity of some of our friends. On Day One, there were the “first responders” who brought pajamas, tooth brushes, contact lens solution, shampoo, hair brushes, and even underwear before I had even realized we were without them.

In the days that followed, we saw these examples of the resourcefulness and creativity of our friends:

• A former manager of mine created a Shutterfly account called Augustson Rebuild and drafted instructions we can send to family and friends on how to upload photos.
• A college friend contacted St. Olaf and requested replacement copies of the yearbooks from our days “on the Hill.”
• A neighbor re-ordered Annika’s school portraits and delivered them with dinner.
• A team of neighbors prescreened a list of rental properties for us so that we could focus on the best options.
• A high school classmate used Facebook to organize and collect donations of clothing and toys.
• Close friends delivered photos and mementos from our friendships over the years.
  

I could go on and on, but the point is that these great people have inspired me to find new ways to rise to the occasion when I am looking for a way to help others. Thanks all!