I had just changed out of my chalky work clothes when the phone rang. I picked it up before Renee had a chance to. We were both the first ones back from our respective worksites. I could always tell when I beat my Americorps buddies to the fourplex because I had my choice of parking spaces for my truck.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Elizabeth?" Asking this was a safe bet for anyone who called our apartment; there were three Elizabeths sharing an apartment. It somehow worked out because one went by Liz, one as Beth, and I only went by Elizabeth. Unfortunately, all our parents called us Elizabeth when they called, so had to ask for us by last name. I don't know how Renee survived.

"Yes?" I asked the male voice on the line.

"It’s Jon."

"Hi, Jon." We weren't very close, so I was surprised to hear from him, especially during the workday. "What's going on?"

"Could you check and see if anyone is in my apartment?"

"Um, it looks like Renee and I are the only ones here at the house so far."

"Oh." He paused for a second. "Well, something happened at the worksite, and I was wondering if you could come pick me up from the hospital."

"Oh my gosh! Are you okay?"

"Yeah, they're letting me go home. I can tell you about it after you get me."

"Oh, okay. We're on our way."

I had no idea where the hospital was, so got Renee to drive us after I told her what was going on.


I remember walking through the hospital. We parked on the streets of downtown Minneapolis and searched through the hospital for Jon. I hadn't been in too many hospitals, so was slightly weirded out by the smell, the illness and the white halls.

I can't remember how we found him. Renee went to get the car and Jon and I stood on the corner and waited. Apparently, he had started feeling nauseous while roofing on the work site, and looked so bad that his site supervisor had called for an ambulance to take him to the hospital. They thought it might be his appendix. The hospital staff, upon his arrival, had diagnosed him with an ulcer instead.

"Wow," I remarked upon hearing of his day’s events. I felt slightly uncomfortable with the urban silence of our surroundings. What was I supposed to do? I wasn’t very close to him at all, I couldn't hug him, could I? All I could say was, 'wow'.


A few weeks later we found out that Jon had been fully admitted to a hospital in one of the suburbs. Sara, Renee and I made a trip out to see him. We feel badly for him; he'd had to stay there for a few days all alone. His fiancé lived in Connecticut, as did his family. We were apparently some of the closest friends he had at the moment.

They had put him in the children’s wing for some reason. A 24 year old skinny white male in the children’s wing. I still don’t understand the placement. He told us that they couldn't figure out what was wrong with him. In the back of our minds, we were all thinking. . . cancer. What else could it be? It was frightening.

When you are in Habitat Americorps, you have safety on your mind a good part of the time. I knew I could expect some volunteers to get slightly injured on site (I had one fall off a low scaffold) and I tried to keep a safe worksite. I imagined the reason one of us would go to the hospital would be for a worksite related injury. I never thought I'd see a situation like Jon's.

We spent a Saturday afternoon with him in the children's visiting area, playing with the limited amount of board games available. We made small talk and tried to find some non-Barney video he could watch. We tried to keep his mind off how crappy he was feeling, the IV attached to his body.


He was finally let out of the hospital a week later and came by our apartment. Renee was cooking her Minnesota quesadillas as Jon sat at our Goodwill table and told us what his illness was. They had finally diagnosed him with Crohn's disease. This disease is somewhat difficult to diagnose, as its symptoms can be mistaken as related to other disorders. He had to change his diet, of course. He had a terribly sad look on his face as he confessed to me that there is no cure for the disease and that he would have to live with it for the rest of his life. He had been a vegetarian, and now would have to improvise a diet.


I saw an ad tonight for a drug for people with Crohn's disease and all this came back to me. It's been a few years now, so my details are sketchy, but it really happened.
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