Catching up with my fascinating friend Mercedes

Mercedes called yesterday. The last time I heard from her she said she was going on a cruise many months ago. I did not know what happened to her and was almost to conclude she had found a life on the cruiseship circuit maybe singing? She said she had been in an automobile accident which injured her to the point she could not use her right arm. She said Barnes and Noble the bookstore where she has worked for many yers had been extremely good to her, and she was just about ready to go back to work after considerable time healing. She also said she had bought a house in foreclosure between a Barnes and Noble store on Camelback and downtown, so that puts her a lot closer to the Westward Ho.
I became fond of Mercedes when she was volunteering to work in the computer lab possibly 8 or 9 years ago. She always showed up each week and took an interest in many residents. We were grateful she always came to our karaoke parties because she could sing. She always added a lot to the party when she was there.
In fact I am hoping to invite my son Gary over along with Mercedes to a karaoke party in my apartment and I will film them singing! She sang with Raymond a couple of times when he came to our Westward Ho karaoke parties. Those were the days. Pierre was a great fan of karaoke parties and he was pushng them. He sang with Mercedes, too.
In fact, the last time I saw Mercedes Raymond and I spent more than hour trying to find her house and the party she was giving. Raymond would not give up. We finally found it by the sounds of a band playing. I will post some photos of the party, so you can see what a great time everybody was having. Mercedes had a live band and lots of singing and some great food.

Raymond and Meredes with friends flanking them at the party


Mercedes singing with the band to her party


But now Mercedes is becoming a healer, which is why she called. She has learned someething called pranic healing and she has sessions every Thursday night in Scottsdale where she leads. Maybe when my sister Linda comes we can go as I know Linda will be very interested because she needs healing. Linda took healing classes at her spiritualist church. I have always thought she had healing hands, like my grandfather who was a chiropracter. Anyway Mercedes was looking into the possibility of doing sessions here at the Westward Ho, but I told her I doubted if the manager would permit it, as they have had a lot of trouble with the desires of many different people to hold all kinds of services here. So they finally wouldn't let any groups have services including those who had been having them for years. If not, Mercedes said she will look for a spot downtown where a room can be secured for such, possibly in an alternative church. I think that is where her session of pranic healing is being held.
I am very interested in what she is doing because it involves telepathic healing as well. She says that they have been experiencing great success with sending healing vibrations to people who may not even know they are the subjects. I am sure many in blogland would be interested in any kind of healing as long as it worked.
When Mercedes came to take me out to lunch for my birthday, the day I took the header photo, she had been studying something about angels in our midst. I was fascinated with that, too, which I will have to talk to her about in more detail when I see her again.
Mercedes has had a fascinating life. She is of Irish descent and she went back to Ireland to college at Trinity. Mercede's father was a wealthy owner of a piano store in Baltimore I think. She was the youngest of a large family. Her parents died and the estate went into probate for many years. In fact I think it still is with many conflicts among the heirs So how do you beat that for interesting, an Irish heiress from Baltimore who went to Trinity, married an Englishman, divorced him and came out to Arizona to live, which is where we met her. I will be looking forward to our next encounter.

Sometimes angels can intervene through caring people to save a life

I talked to the man who finally sobered up I thought in just the nick of time. I thought he was only days maybe even hours from his death. He confirmed that things had become desperate.
A good woman friend here took him to every hospital in the vicinity and every emergency ward turned him away. He had been in some of the hospitals but would go home and drink again. They finally gave up. He said he went over to Circle K to get some more beer and was sitting outside somewhere drinking. A young woman whose face he can only vaguely remember came up and started talking to him. When he told her about the hours they had spent trying to find a place that would take him, she said that she was going to try to help him. She took his apartment number.
He went home and he said a couple of hours later she knocked on his door, and said that she was there to take him to a hospital. When they arrived at Good Sam's, he said oh no, I have already been here, they won't take me. She said, we are going to bypass emergency. They have a bed waiting for you in ICU and you will be under the care of such and such a doctor. I must say this young woman had unusual authority. He said it was discovered in the ICU that blood poisoning was already taking place from the long infected scrapes and cuts on his body. They put an IV of antibiotics directly into his veins and kept it there until he left. The doctor also said he wanted to try a new drug that has been successful in treating alcoholics.
The man said that another doctor had ordered this drug and his insurance (medicare) would not pay for it. The doctor told him if they turned him down he had the power to over ride the refusal and give it to him anyway, which he did.
From that point on he slowly worked his way back to sobriety. I said, who was that woman? He said she was an angel. Tears came to my eyes. I said she certainly was your angel. I believe that if this young woman had not come along and this doctor had not believed he was worth helping, this man would not be with us today.
I said your recovery will give all alcoholics hope and an example, even the most stubborn of them. This man has aged from this awful experience, but he is looking better every day, more calm, more like the man whose sobriety we had enjoyed for five years.
I told him that I know we all have to die, but not like that, drunk, dirty and out of his mind, when he can be so lucid. I said what made you snap. He said, I don't know, prosperity. I can't stand things to go too well.