4:09 AM

It was 10:10pm. There was a child pounding at my door. I was obviously in bed (old lady, yes) and just assumed it was someone wanting to play. I planned on just letting them keep pounding. It didn't stop. Luckily, there was an intern staying with me for the night that thought she better stop the pounding. She hollered up the stairs, "Jessi, it's ____, and she wants you to take her mom to the hospital." In a split second I had my feet running down the stairs with my keys. In that brief moment all rational thoughts were out the window and I couldn't get to her house fast enough, though it's just four doors down. The two little girls got in the car and mom came out. She was barely breathing and consistantly has bad asthma and other health problems. Between gasps she told me how to get to the hospital (and joked about how she easily forgets I'm not from Detroit) and we arrived at the ER.

She walked in, we parked. The parking attendant gave me grace as yet again I had absolutely no cash. I walked in with the twin girls, one in each hand. They had never been to the ER and were anxious to see what it looked like. They also were straining there eyes to find their mother and assure themsevles that she was ok. We had to walk through a metal detector. Though, not too much down here shocks me. We couldn't see her when I walked in. A little panic set in as I knew the condition she was in. The social worker sitting at the desk was no help and I felt so much sadness about how indignantly she treated those that walked in. Eventually, a kind woman who heard me describing her told me where she was and there was a kind brown nurse taking good care of her.

We waited a little bit but after her first treatment they took her 'back' (not sure what that means!). So I took the girls home at 11:00pm. I told the mom to call me back when she was done, both of us assuming she'd spend the night. When we got home three-year-old sister was standing at the door. I found the oldest sister and asked her to put the kids to bed and gave her the update on her mother.

I crawled back up the stairs to sleep and quickly began calculating the hours before I'd have to be up. Somewhere between sleep at 4:09 AM they were finished at the hospital and mom called me. I sprung to my feet back quickly down the stairs and out the door to get her. My rational thoughts of hours until i have to get up were quickly gone as I went to retrieve her. She was smiling, she was breathing, and she was exhausted. I told her the kids were doing great and we'd get them tomorrow for camp. She stumbled into the house, hopefully to peace and quiet and a bed. Hopefully, she's sleeping soundly now, and breathing better too.

I woke up this morning and wiped the sleep from my eyes. Immediately though, I was grateful that I was just four doors down and able to act as the ambulance. I love this family to pieces and would do it again for them or anyone, any time of the day.

Pray for our families.