My Son Left for NYC Today

My son Michael has been here with his new friend Kate for two weeks. I was in Pittsburgh during part of their stay, but with all the warnings about the hurricane I left early and now I'm glad that I did. I got to spend time with Michael and Kate.

Everybody knows--and I am quite sensitive about trying not to be one of those horrible show-offy parents--that Michael has spent a good part of his 28 years rushing into dangerous situations in unstable governments and saving people from illness and death. He seems to have no fear. If he does have fear of doing these things, he does a great job of not showing it. I've observed him and come up with certain facts: the more chaotic a situation, the calmer he gets; he's one of those people like the explorers who wanted to find out for themselves if the world is really round; his heart, mind, and soul always respond to human suffering and need, universal or otherwise.

As tough as he is, he's the most devoted son anyone could hope for. When he's home it's like I'm on a vacation. He's a wonderful and frugal cook who cleans up the kitchen after he's done and he always make healthful meals. He never forgets birthdays, Mother's Day, or Father's Day and did something a few years ago that I call Triple Coupon Day: he was spending a few weeks in Israel in the Birthright Program and Mother's Day happened to fall then. On that Sunday he called my mother to wish her a happy mother's day also. He's a nice Jewish boy calling his grandmother from Israel on Mother's Day. (Guess what Israeli mothers send their sons and daughters? Boxes of ammunition. Their defense budget isn't anything compared to ours.)

I could stay up all night telling stories about Michael. Having him made me tough and tender. I've said goodbye to Michael as he left for hell-holes such as Haiti and Japan after their earthquakes. He went to New Orleans and Texas after Katrina and Rita. I don't know everything about what he did in these places and that's probably a good thing. But I do know that being a paramedic and EMT, he set up medical facilities with few supplies and an unstable water supply. He has saved lives, many of them on battlefields. He's delivered quite a few babies. And he always brings me glamorous gifts such as a flower shaped pendant made of amber from Nigeria, I think, where the amber supply is rich. Also, because Michael knows I like owls, he brought me a small, rounded carving of an owl with very large eyes and my name carved into it, from Japan.

But that is the fun part. Michael has scars all over his body, had to have eye surgery (and we were unsure of the outcome; fortunately his eye healed well) has minor knee and back problems. He had Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome after the summer of 2005 I believe it was. He had been in Asia for that whole summer and we didn't know where he was for weeks. This was in service for the United Nations. At this time, Michael has been awarded between 16 and 20 medals for bravery and valor from various countries. He seems uninterested in them so we keep the medals here in a glass-fronted case. He speaks many languages and once, in Central Park in New York, he rescued a girl from being raped; we learned later that the would-be rapist had a gun. In the picture accompanying this blog, Michael had just been rewarded for saving the girl by either New York City or New York State. Sometimes I forget what he got awarded for and by whom.

As I said and my husband repeated lately: "A whole lot of head-shaking goes on around here." My husband and I look at each other and shake our heads. We don't understand this. How did our son get to be so heroic? We raised him right, he has told us. Is that what we did?

I will end on this note. Michael spent time in Haiti after their earthquake so I wanted to see him. I met him in New York--his home base at the time--for a little mother-son time. I stood and watched him approach me--he couldn't see me--and he strolled down the busy New York City street, seemingly carefree and happy. I learned shortly after that that he had performed amputations, sewn up life-threatening wounds, and made up his own home-brewed cure for cholera, plus helped to repair the Haitian water system.

How and why? We don't know. So we enjoy what there is to enjoy as best we can. Believe me there is a lot to enjoy! He has told me that I'm "the best mother anyone could hope for" and if I'm sick or upset about something he can't really rest until he knows I'm OK. Sometimes I think that I have been a vessel put on earth to bring this boy to manhood. That's as good an explanation as any.