Elaine Cooper

Being a doctor offers me unique opportunities. I had a patient who died about a year ago that I wish I could tell how much she blessed my life. I love her. I was feeling down the other day, missing Karyn when I looked up from my bedroom couch and saw the heart wreath Elaine made for our wedding a year ago. There was such love put into this. She folded many dollar-bills, accordion-style, and tied them to a wreath made of sticks in the shape of a heart. She was in a great deal of pain when she made it. She could barely walk. She was terminal with disseminated lung cancer and many metastases in her brain. She had a friend drive it to my office in Santa Barbara only weeks before she died. At the time, I was so stressed about the business and marriage that I wasn't able to really appreciate it. Now I do. Her story is AWESOME! I'll do the best I can to reproduce it from memory.

 

Elaine was born in Europe, she doesn't know where. Nor did she ever know her parents. She was probably the product of an American GI and a German woman during WWII. She was found in an orphanage in Germany where she lived until she was about five, then she was transferred to Spain where she lived for another three. At this time, the American military began to take responsibility for all the war orphans/births and she was scheduled to come to the United States to be adopted by a military family. She was put on a ship bound for New York Harbor, but when they got to the Statue of Liberty they had to turn around and go back because an outbreak of tuberculosis in Spain was reported. She went back for a few more years before she was finally taken to America. 

She was assigned (ordered) to be adopted by a military family. The father was really nice to her, but the mother told her she hated her. A year later the father died and the mother told her to leave. She had nowhere to go, and she didn't know anyone so she lived in the streets of Atlanta.

She wanted an education so she went to school while living in the streets. She began working at a clothing factory, sneaking in and sleeping in the cloth at night. In the morning she would get herself up and go to school, then come home from school and work in the factory. The other girls who lived in the streets told her that she could make money by selling herself to men, then she wouldn't have to work, but she thought, "I'm not going to do anything I would have to explain to my children some day." 

She did so well in school, that the principal wanted to advance her a grade. She was told to bring her parents to the principal's office, but since she didn't have any parents, she decided to go alone. The next day, while she was walking to his office, she was crossing the street and a car driving very fast hit her. She was taken to the hospital where she was found to have several broken bones, a broken hip, and a concussion. She was unable to walk, and was put in a body cast. The nurse tried to find and notify her family, but she didn't have one. When she got out of the hospital, she was placed with a foster family, but they were very abusive to her so she left and was homeless again. 

She worked and finished high school and went on to college. She met a man and they were married. When she was pregnant with their first child, her husband died. And she had to go through the pregnancy and raising her son alone.

When her son was very young, she brought him to the doctor and told him that her child was deaf. The doctor said, "nonsense! his behavior is normal." She didn't wait for a diagnosis. She began teaching him sign language and lip reading. It took two more years before the doctors told her that her son was deaf.

She eventually married again to a man she loved very much. After about ten years, he was diagnosed with cancer. She took care of him through all his treatment until he finally succumbed to the disease.

A few years later she was also diagnosed with cancer. She had an 8cm mass in her lung and was told she wouldn't live three months. She told the doctor, "There is no expiration date stamped on my ass, and you don't know how long I'm going to live!" She came to see us at the Integrative Medicine Center and was getting vitamin C IV drips and glutathione every week. Her lung cancer shrunk down and she remained active.

She lived for two more years, continuing to work as a parole officer for children in Los Angeles. She loved the boys she was assigned to. What's more, while she was getting treatments, she would sit there and knit caps for the homeless people in Los Angeles. She never stopped, though her own life was very hard, she looked for and helped those in need at all times. She has been an inspiration to me by her wonderful example.

The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles.

The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.

Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord delivereth him out of them all.

Psalm 34:17-19