Saving Each Other: A Mother-Daughter Love Story by Victoria Jackson & Ali Guthy

Author:Victoria Jackson & Ali Guthy [Jackson, Victoria]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9781593157340
Publisher: Vanguard Press
Published: 2012-10-15T16:00:00+00:00

Just after Labor Day, 2009

Year two with NMO is life in Limbo-land.

It’s a month since my failed attempt to offer Ali medical marijuana. Not really something that I thought through all the way, the idea was to have some sort of emergency remedy that we could keep under glass, only to be broken during a severe attack when relief appeared out of reach.

The effort began with a foray into a very sketchy area of the Valley to apply for a license for myself and my insomnia-induced headaches (true). When the license was approved, I ventured off to the dispensary located in an even sketchier neighborhood.

Number one, I felt funny going into that world, definitely a through-the-looking-glass experience. To my shock, there were medical marijuana vending machines! I watched a mixed clientele peruse and legally purchase items from vending machines! That was weird enough. But I was also surprised at how dated my street smarts were. Once upon a time I did know the lingo, even if I’ve always been too afraid to put any kind of mind-altering substances into my body.

But so much had changed from the days of the nickel bags and single joints that I used to see at parties my friends held when I was a kid. There were now not only so many different strains and strengths of pot, but you could also choose between the kind that brings you up and the other kind that brings you down. I decided to get both kinds—why do less when you can choose more?—as well as a batch of brownies and an assortment of pot accessories and a “piece.”

Ali instantly forgot her numb foot and her stoicism and whatever other emotions were bubbling up inside her and looked at the jar of weed with its medicinal label and screamed, “Oooh, Mom, get that out of here!”

On the phone later, when she was telling Dr. Ben Greenberg about the progression of the numbness from her foot to the rest of her right side, I heard Ali add, “Oh, Mom tried to give me drugs!”

No laughter followed. After a beat she added, “Yeah, uh-huh, she thought I should try medical marijuana.” In all seriousness, Ali put her hand over the phone, shook her head, and warned, “Just say ‘no,’ Mom.”

She is so astounding, how she keeps fear at arms’ length, as she did a few days after the attack. We took a walk on the beach, and she again described her future, telling me, “Mom, I want my dream man to walk me down the beach in a sunset like this. Just like we are now.”

Me too.

“We’ll be walking along right here, drinking champagne. I’m not sure why we happen to be so festive, but I’ll figure that out. Anyway, right when we turn to go back to the party, he’ll drop to one knee and ask me to marry him.”

By chance or maybe not, the place where she chose for her future dream man to propose to her happened to be in back of the house where I married Bill.

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