I met Rebecca when I was an awkward, insecure, 22 year old newly wed working at a day spa. Rebecca was a patron of the day spa and scheduled a 1 hour massage once a week. I remember the first time I saw her, she was exiting the spa area where she received her massage and had massage face and hair with a euphoric look on her face. She had just had a really good massage. I was lucky enough to be the one to close out the bill with her and we got to talking…and we kept talking. She is and has always been one of the easiest people to talk to. Conversation flowed naturally every time she came into the spa for a massage. We maintained our friendship through the weekly massage appointments and I always looked forward to seeing her on our schedule. We would somehow fit heart to hearts in while I was taking her to the spa. Rebecca became a friend, not just a person I was friendly to because I was working.
Rebecca is one of the most interesting people I have ever met. She has a vast ocean of life experiences that would blow your mind. She has a story for every situation! When I left the day spa job to be a stay-at-home mom with Eliza, Rebecca and I knew we needed to stay connected. She even came to my baby shower for Eliza! I remember what she wore – a pink traditional African dress (she had lived in Africa and had a wild life there with the Peace Corp.) This dress was so Rebecca. Rebecca ALWAYS shows up as herself. I think she may be the first person in my life that I realized was truly authentic. She was inspiring to me because she was so confident, well spoken, convicted, highly educated and she too was a newly wed. She is older than me, I’m not sure how much older, but she waited to get married until her 30s and that wait really paid off because she married a wonderful man named Doug. If you are alive, you will like Doug, he is just a good person and the kind of guy you hold out for.
Now, Rebecca doesn’t usually go by Rebecca, she uses the name Reba. I initially did not know that because she used her Christian name when booking her first and fateful appointment at Carmona’s Salon and Day Spa. So she is and will forever be in my heart and mind as Rebecca. I say this because I always introduce her as Rebecca and she kindly says, “you can call me Reba.” I just love this woman.
In my younger days I was the poster child for an evangelical Christian woman. Right down to the fact that I joined a couple MLMs. The best part about my MLM experiences is that I was working with Rebecca as a “Team Member”. I recruited her to join my team for TWO of my MLM attempts. We work really well together. It’s like a harmony and a melody working together, we’re definitely not alike, but we work so well together. We also had a lot of fun going to conventions and having late night wine and conversation until too early in the morning. We’ve made some really special memories together. Here’s a few pictures of our escapades.
Moments after I shared that I was diagnosed with cancer she texted me and asked when she could come to help me. That was her first reaction, to help me and serve me. She has a beautiful family of her own so this was not a small offer she was making – to leave her family and help take care of mine. I was in no position to say “no” to an offer like that and Rebecca stepped up and met a very major need. Prior to her offering I was stressed about what I was going to do in the early days after the surgery. Chris could have taken time off work but we also needed his income, he needed to work. Rebecca made it possible for Chris to still work because she became the captain of the Sheehan Ship. You name it, she did it. Chris and I for all intents and purposes relinquished the running of our home to Rebecca and she took on that task so willingly. Her presence in our home during my initial days of healing was paramount to my healing. I’m not sure if she really grasps just how important she was to our survival the first week after my surgery.
I would be selling her short if I didn’t mention her exquisite cooking skills. She cooked up a storm and filled our freezer with delicious food. I loved hearing her cook. She does it so joyfully. There was usually music and cheerful conversation as she cooked up a storm while managing everything else. Can you tell she’s a mom? A REALLY good mom too. My kids loved having Rebecca around. She was so easy going and unattached to an outcome that the kids just so easily fell into a rhythm with her. I’m pretty sure she’s made out of some truly marvelous magic.
When Rebecca and I are together we laugh. No, I mean we LAUGH. Pants have been peed, drinks have been spilled, others have looked at us like we’re crazy. I love laughing with Rebecca. It’s one of my favorite things to do. I wasn’t about to let a major chest surgery get in the way of our laughter, so multiple times a day I would laugh and moan in pain because of the laughing. It’s the perfect medicine.
A lot of laughs were had, but I want to share with you one incident in particular that really got us going. I’m pretty sure it was the day after my surgery and my pain was wild, I was no more capable than a toddler. I needed help getting out of bed and walking to the toilet. I needed help pulling down my underwear and sitting on the toilet and I was a little wobbly to say the least. Rebecca lovingly helped me get through all the bathroom steps but as she was pulling down my underwear, I malfunctioned and started sitting down even though I wasn’t close enough to the toilet seat. Rebecca’s head was between my ass and the toilet and I was coming down like a panini press. She moved fast, but her face grazed my ass and the toilet seat. It was a true comedy of errors and it all happened so quickly that I landed with a thud on the first couple of inches of the toilet seat narrowly avoiding a post surgery fall. We both broke out into tear inducing laughter. An ass to the face is an unusual way to deepen a friendship, but it definitely gets the job done.
Rebecca stayed with us a total of 10 days. TEN DAYS. She would facetime her boys and parent from afar while coordinating school pick ups, meals, and my healing for our household… Her sacrifice for me and my family will always be remembered. I’m so thankful for the laughter she brings with her. She’s the kind of person that changes your life when she walks into it. I’ll always be thankful to that short lived job at the day spa that brought me one of my favorite people in the world.
Rebecca, you’re my ride or die. Let’s get into some trouble.