[meteorite-list] Bessey Specks and aphasia.

[Steve Schoner]

Here is something that amuses me.

 

For those of you who do not know, I was nearly died and was in a coma in the hospital last January.  I was in there, ICU and rehab for over a month.

 

I received many, many letters from all of you from all around the world wishing me the best recovery.  (At the initial moment the doctors were certain that I would not recover at all).

 

Well one package came to me while I was in the Rehab unit suffering from the aftermath of this very rare condition that overtook me.  It was a package from Dean Bessy up in Toronto.  It had a very nice note, which was read to me as I could not read due to the aphasia that was affecting me by one of the nurses at the time. .

 

Any demand on me at that time that involconceptualizationaton was beyond me.  It was very frustrating.

 

Then the nurse said, "Oh, there is a container in this package?" 

 

Low and behold, it was a tiny round plastic container with two very tiny specks

 

Aphasia is a very odd state of mind to be in.  Words mean nothing in print.  A printed page was as unreadable as if it were written in Russian.  And not only that, putting together even the simplest concepts was way beyond me.  It was so bad, if the nurse asked me what one plus one was I could not give her any meaningful answer.

The nurse then held it up to my face and showed me the two tiny specks, and asked me "What are these?"

Well, that question perplexed me as well.  I had absolutely no idea what those two specks were.  I didn't even know that they were meteorites let alone regular earth dust.
I mean, I did not even know what Bessy Specs were, and neither did the nurse.  She was just as mystified about what those specs were as I was in my aphasic state of mind.
She left the letter and jet pack on the counter next in my hospital bed where I could reach them.  Many times I reached over with my left hand, as my right side was completely dead,  for that small plastic container with those two tiny specs.  And for hours I  tried  to figure out what it was.

It make no sense at all.

Then my wife came and saw the package and the container.  "Oh, someone sent you something?"  I could not talk then, and only acknowledged with a nod.  She then read the letter again, but it gave no clue as to what the specks were, or why they had been sent.  My wife did not know.  Then she looked into the jet pack and found a card that said:

  "Sayah Al Uhaymir 90  Meteorite from the Planet Mars found in Oman. TKW 94 grams, but these are likely paired stones."

Then it was followed by Bessy's address.

Then she said, "Are those two tiny things in there meteorites?  Those are not 94 grams.  Maybe there is sample in all of the packing inside the container."  She attempted to open it as I watched, but was thwarted by the tape on the outside of the container.  She could not open it so put it back.   Rehab meetings got our attention and I was put into a wheel chair for therapy.

When I got back to my hospital room later in the day, that container mystified me again.  I picked it up and looked at it for quite some time.   I'd put it down, completely degraded conceptually, and then later pick it up again, and try to figure it out again..  

I remembered Dean Bessy but could not remember that he sold "specks"  even though I had one (two very tiny ones) in my hands. 

Well, I have said all of this and related this story to say, that I do have two very, very tiny Bessy Specks" in my collection.  And I remember them, and all of the consternation that they caused me while I was in the hospital in my aphasic state of mind.

It was a weird state to be in, and now those specks reside proudly displayed on my collection shelf as a memento of the many hours of long consideration (consternation) and mental challenge that they caused me as I was in the hospital.

It did not occur to me what these were as it was almost till the day I left the hospital that it came to me, as my aphasia was lifting that these were the infamous "Bessy Specks" that I hate.

But not these two, they are cherished,  for they bring back the memory of those moments, that time I had in the hospital, those weird moments when nothing made sense to me, not even "Bessy Specks"

Steve Schoner/AMS

 

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