To everyone at Mental Health Systems who has supported me in this journey:
Any attempt to articulate, with words, the depth of the gratitude that my heart is filled with –seems so trite, but I will attempt. Eight months ago, when I heard the word cancer – as I am sure everyone who has had that experience goes through, an emotional roller coaster ride began. There was fear, panic, reflection, confusion, a wide range of feelings that continue even now. But, while my emotions were in such chaos, out of all this came something else; something so rare and precious; most of all, so humbling. It was the response of the people I have had the privilege of working and hanging out with, and befriending over the past 12 years at Mental Health Systems; a response I neither anticipated, nor could have imagined would be so gracious and generous.
Generally, I am the eternal optimist, but like everyone, I suppose, I can go to those more cynical places. Something I wrote, and something I often talk, worry and think about; the potential for the loss of community-which I contend is, in large part, the reason for so much despair, confusion, and conflict in this world we share. When New Starts began, an excerpt of the program philosophy said “We must be careful as we go racing down this 24-hour information highway, lest we forget the names, the faces, and the humanness we share.” Any time spent in an airport these days, witnessing how many people aren’t talking, or making eye contact, is a vivid reminder of this ‘information highway at work’.
What I have experienced as a member of the MHS Community has invigorated my ‘optimist’ self and quelled my ‘cynic’ self, to be sure. When the company wide email went out requesting donations for me, little ‘ole me, I was moved to tears; the good kind, joyful tears. I, facing this arduous journey, could not have been in a better place in terms of the friendships that have formed for the past 12 years, and solidified even more so over the past eight months. The generosity of spirit; the extensions of shoulders to cry on, arms to be held in, places to say how I really felt, lunches, food deliveries to my house during chemo, and time off when I couldn’t keep going; countless gestures, toward me, little ‘ole me.
I can’t begin to express my how touched, moved, and grateful I am, starting with Kim, David, Orv, and Vicki, and everyone else of the MHS community, and what a wondrous, great community it is. This is a time that will remain in my heart forever.
With warmest regards,
Denise Sassoon
