I was looking at my meteorite shelf and found two little specks in
a container. Here is something that amuses me, as these brought
back a lot of memories.
For those of you who do not know, I nearly died and was in a coma
in the hospital last January. I was in 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 Bessey 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 involved conceptualizationaton
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 Bessey 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 Bessey'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 Bessey 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 Bessey 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 "Bessey 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
"Bessey Specks"
So, there are just two that I don't hate.
Steve Schoner/AMS
