The Mediation

Well things have started to settle on the lawsuit front. For the past few years Sweetie and I have been embroiled in a lawsuit with Seattle Children’s Hospital over some sub-par care Ike had received when he still had his old illness. We had a mediation with them at the beginning of the month in which we reached an agreement and later this week we will sign all that paperwork and put it to rest.

The mediation was harder than I was prepared for, at least emotionally. I had come to think of myself as toughened up and ready for anything, at least where Ike is concerned. But it’s one thing to talk, and quite another thing to be, or so it seemed in that office, near the top floor looking out at the melting-snow-covered view of First Hill.

I had my ass kicked: Sweetie and I both did. When the day was over, after wandering around trying to remember where we parked, we sat in the car thinking how the simple act of turning on the ignition was really pretty difficult when you stopped to think of it. I mean first you have to find the keys, maneuver them past and around the steering column and aim for a small slot located at a right angle from where you’re sitting.

All I could do was stare.

Fortunately we came prepared. By that I mean we had stopped for coffee on the way and after only a few more sips I was able to get the engine to turn over and we made our way out of the parking garage and into the slushy remnants of the regions first snow fall of the year.

The boys were staying with my brother’s family while we were gone. Sweetie and I took roads we hadn’t been on since we lived in Seattle, winding our way though the back streets, across neighborhoods left stranded by the lack of snowplows, in the hopes that a few more minutes of rest would give us enough energy to get us home.