Widow Maker—Forthcoming from Finishing Line Press
On June 4, 2015, my husband (Al Bartholet) was in Washington, DC, getting ready for a meeting with someone at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. He had a burning sensation in the crooks of his arms, which did not seem like a big deal until he broke out in a cold sweat. At that point, he phoned “Henry” at the front desk of his hotel room (the Gallery Place Marriott) and asked for help. Henry took immediate action, calling paramedics, getting front-desk coverage, blocking an elevator for quick access, and opening the hotel room door to find Al unconscious.
Boom. Paramedics got him into the ambulance, where Al had his first two cardiac arrests. When they arrived at George Washington University Medical Center (just 2.6 miles away), one ER doctor told me later that they “thought he was dead.” Then, for just over an hour, doctors worked to save his life as his heart stopped multiple more times and they eventually stabilized him and put a stent into his heart.
It was a Widow Maker, and this entire experience—as well as his recovery—will be published this summer in my chapbook of poems by the same name (Widow Maker) by Finishing Line Press.
I wrote these poems to help make sense of everything that was happening to Al. I also see these poems as one way that I can honor and thank the many people who worked so hard to save his life. Dr. Ramesh Mazhari (born in Iran)…Dr. Mohammed (I never learned his last name) (from Syria)…ICU nurses Courtney, Sade, Nora, and Ruby…and paramedics who are completely unknown to us.
We owe a debt of gratitude to others, too…friends Bo and Sandie Rose, Jim and Pam Huggins, Eric Nuzum and Katherine Kendall, Nancy Barbour and Phil Kedrowski, Martha Woodroof, Kathy Spano, Professuh Blues (on the air every Saturday night on WMRA!), Matt and Karen Bingay, Bob and Trisha Brown-Leweke, Jeanmarie Badar and Jim Kauffman, Elizabeth Bartz, and others (I’ll include our grown children Mark and Paul Bartholet and Lysa Anderson!). It took a village to save Al’s life…and what a village it is/was!
