A Rare Character

Last week was a bit of a stressful week.  The Sunday before, an announcement was made concerning a sister in our ward who needed around the clock care.  She had cancer and after exhausting every means of cure here in the states, she took a trip to Mexico to a magical doctor who seems to be able to cure or slow cancers.  Anyway, I knew that I needed to sign up for going in for a shift even though I didn't know her from Adam.  And then...all week I fretted.
I had never been around anyone who was that sick.  When mom wanted me to go to the old age center with her I always tried to wiggle out of it.  It wasn't that I was afraid or illness or oldness, it was just that I didn't know what to do with the situation once I was in the middle of it!
We had been asked to bring in a meal when we came so all week I was nervous about that because I knew that people with cancer had a lack of appetite and that they were usually on very strict diets.  Finally, I came up with the plan of making quinoa and black beans with some marinated chicken strips and fresh carrots.  I knew that it would be a protein packed meal and that seems to be what cancer peops need the most of in order to rebuild their deteriorating bodies.  Now that the issue was settled, I thought my nerves would settle down--but they didn't.  Okay.  I was nervous about being around a very sick person.  What do I say?  What do I do?  Do I have to take her to the bathroom and wipe her bottom?  Anyway...you see where I'm going.
Friday finally came around and I spent a couple hours cooking before heading up the canyon to her home.  I drove up the long driveway to her log cabin mansion and was greeted with a very loving and happy shepherd.  I took a few minutes to pet him before entering the house.  Animals have always had such a calming effect on me...   As I walked in the door, I was greeted by Susan, the person whose shift was just ending, and she took me in to where Dusty was sitting.  I was given the most welcoming greeting that I have received in my life by this glorious woman in a very frail body.
From where I stood in the doorway, I could tell that she was tall and quite thin underneath the blanket covering her legs.  Her home was as cozy as cozy could be with huge log walls that were decorated in true cowboy fashion with old lamps, a wood burning stove in the kitchen, and huge cowboy boot planters.  She chatted away as we spent a couple minutes getting to know each other and then invited me to take the food I'd brought in to the kitchen.  Right away I could tell that she was a person that I wanted to get to know.  Even as sick as she was, it was easy to see that she was full of spunk and vinegar; a person who still had a lot of living left to do.
Susan followed me in to show me the regimen of supplements and concoctions that we had to make sure Dusty took at specific times during the day.  As she prepared the pre-meal supplements, I began to dish out the chicken, quinoa and carrots.  I invited Susan to stay and share our meal, somewhat out of fear of her leaving me alone and somewhat of simply having more than enough food for three. 
I handed Dusty her plate as she sat snug in her arm chair framed by the two windows on either side of the corner where she was situated.  She looked quite eager to sample the goods.  She explained that for the past few months she had not been able to eat with very much satisfaction and that the day before was the first day in months that she had actually eaten three meals a day.  She said that as I walked in the door, she caught a whiff of the food I had brought and she realized that for the first time in a very long, long time, she was hungry.  We all three sat and visited as we ate our small nutritious meal together--with Dusty doing most of the talking.
Years ago I had read in the newspaper about a game about the outlaws who hung around the Uintah Basin and nearby Browns Park.  I was fascinated back then at the thought of such a game.  As it turns out, Dusty Johnson--the woman sitting right in front of me--was the very creator of the game known as Riding the Outlaw Trail. 
Over the next two hours Dusty shared experiences that she had in making the game as she came to intimately know people like Butch Cassidy, the Sundance Kid, Matt Warner and other outlaws that make up the characters of her game.  She spent twelve years studying and creating with every second of her thoughts having something to do with how to bring to life these mysterious people and our local surroundings.  I was truly mesmerized.  Her knowledge of historical facts as well as the fire in her soul for her beloved project imprinted on my soul the picture of her sitting there covered in a thin blanket with her incredibly weak and wrinkled body with a heart and soul blazing like the sun while she told the stories of the outlaws.  I hope I never forget that image of the strength of a soul on fire with a love of life that most of us never taste.
I had learned of Dusty through working with the Trees for Charity program.  Someone had donated a tree in her honor in hopes of earning enough money to help her with the cost of her cancer treatments.  There were trickles of stories about her after that.  They told of what a character she was and how she liked to surprise people with her flamboyant ways of speech.  She was given the title of J. Golden Kimball's female counterpart.  In case you don't know of Brother Kimball, he is quite well known in the annals of the church for his swearing and cussing during his speeches.  We all get a chuckle out of him and I do have to agree that Dusty is his match.
Dusty is a true blue cowgirl.  She works with leather and dresses in cowgirl clothes, complete with a big black cowboy hat and boots.  She told stories of going on the road with a couple guys who live up the canyon--the Stewart boys.  I'm sure they are knocking on 40, if not older and quite younger than Dusty.  They would travel to Texas and around selling their leather goods and saddles that they had made the old fashioned way.  She looked on them as her little brothers as they looked out for her and she looked out for them as well.
One of the stories she told was quite amusing and it tells a lot about the type of person that Dusty was.  They were down in Texas and the three of them were taking a lunch break.  One of the Stewart boys was extremely sick but he wouldn't let them take him to the hospital.  As they sat at a long table with a few other cowboys and girls, one girl began flirting with the Stewart boy named Jeff.  Dusty was sitting with Jeff on one side of her and another burly man on the other side.  This girl sat across the table from the burly guy who was obviously there with her.  Dusty could tell that if he was not her husband, he was at least a boyfriend.  I guess Jeff is quite handsome and this girl just wouldn't stop.  Dusty saw the burly man began clinching his fists and rubbing one big ole hand over the other that was clinched tight.  Dusty spoke up and told the girl that she needed to stop and leave them alone but the girl just kept on flirting.  Dusty sat there watching what she knew was going to erupt into a good ole fashioned bar room brawl but knew that Jeff, in his weakened condition (they later found out that he had a ruptured appendix), would probably be killed with the first punch.  So she began kicking him under the table trying to get his attention.  He was oblivious to the flirtations and couldn't figure out why Dusty was kicking him.  She knew she had to do something quickly and she had to do it now.  She jumped up out of her chair and stuck a finger in the girl's face and exclaimed, "You better stop this!  This man is a married man!  Can't you see the writing on his vest that says he is from Vernal, UTAH!  He has a wife and six kids at home...and...I AM HIS SECOND WIFE!  Now, you stop messing with him and get out of here!"  Of course, she wasn't his second wife but the outburst had the hoped for outcome and the girl and her burly man got up and left the table.  HA!  The story goes on a bit more but it does show what a hoot this little lady can be.
After a couple hours of visiting, Dusty began to tire and she went up stairs for a nap.  I wandered around her very country home and found a picture of her before all the cancer stuff began invading her life.  I could not see in that person the same person who just told me a bunch of wild west stories.  Although the cancer had drained the life out of her body, it had not touched her spirit. 
This is an experience that I will cherish.  I hope she beats the cancer.  I hope to be able to have more time with such an amazing woman.  It did make me a little more aware of what I am doing to my body.  Her strict diet does not allow for microwaved foods (that kills the nutrients and when we eat food that has been warmed or cooked in a microwave, we are just starving our bodies), ice cream, or white stuff (sugar, flour).  It seems that cancer loves sugar and feeds off of it.  Her doctor told her, "Cook like you gramma cooked."  We have way too much processed foods in our diet and way too little true foods and therefore we are given the consequence of way too many people with cancer.  Take care of your families and don't take the short cuts in their nutrition that have become every day on our society.  And, if we do choose not to listen to these wise words of advice from Dusty and her doctor, I do hope that when and if we get cancer, we will be as spunky as she was last week.