A Story Idea Each Day for a Month — Day 13

This is the 13th year in a row I’ve run this series in April. Why a story idea each day for the month? Several reasons which I’ll work my through during this series of posts.

Tip: Obituaries.

When it comes down to it, people live extraordinary lives. And obituaries summarize those lives in nice, neat packages. For some examples, go here.

So if you’re stuck for story ideas? Hit the obits.

Today’s story: After Finding Out She Was Terminal, She Asked Her Nurse The Most Important Question A Single Mom Can.

Let’s go back to where it started, in 2014.

At Pinnacle Health Community General Hospital in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

In a room on the oncology department floor.

When 45- year-old single mother Tricia Somers was given the diagnosis….. that she had terminal liver cancer and didn’t have long to live.

She had one overriding thought, and because of the magic feeling she had received in her weeks on the floor, it all fell together.

It was the feelings that she deeply felt in the presence of her oncology nurse of the same age, same name and same initials, Tricia Seaman.

“I just felt comforted. It was like someone wearing a warm blanket on me,” Summers said at the time, “I have never felt such a thing or a connection with someone else.

The two had developed a bond whilst she was undergoing round after round of tests and chemotherapy, and she always felt comfortable and safe in Tricia’s presence.

So now she knew she was going to die.

And what of her pride and joy and best friend, her eight-year-old son Wesley?

Both her parents had passed of cancer and she had no siblings.

Wesley’s father was rarely in the picture, and Tricia had moved to Harrisburg in the first place because she was a victim of domestic violence and because she needed a fresh start.

She didn’t place that kind of trust in anyone like that.

Until she met her nurse, whom she felt a trust that she had never felt before.

She waited until the day of her discharge, when she would be going home to hospice care.

After the two were together, she gained the courage to ask.

Recalled Tricia Seaman, “Tricia looked at me and said, ‘When I die, will you and your husband raise my son?’

This is a real-life story which is guaranteed to bring you to tears… in a bittersweet, yet wonderful way.

Let’s face it. Much of what we experience about the modern world via social media and the news is bleak. So much hatred out there. Mean-spirited souls who have zero empathy for the needs of others. The greed, selfishness, and downright cruelty people are capable of exhibiting is dispiriting.

Then there are stories like this where we see the goodness human beings can summon up. Especially in the face of death. Lovingkindness. Generosity.

Yes, is what what Tricia Seaman, the nurse, responded to Tricia Somers, the dying mother.

When Seaman told her husband Daniel, his response?

“We need to do something to help this lady.”

When they both proposed this with their children, Anna, 20, Jenna, 18, Emma, 15, and Noah, 12, they were all in.

But that just didn’t seem enough to the family.

They had Tricia move into their house.

“Tricia was having trouble walking, she could barely move, and that was when we made arrangements to bring her here to our house. That way she didn’t have to worry about trying to get food for Wesley, or worry about what medicine was due for herself. We took care of all of that.

At one point I said, ‘I can’t be your nurse anymore. I’m your family now.’ I talked to her and said I want you to come home. She kind of fell apart and cried. She said, ‘I’d love to.’

We just want to Trish to live life to the fullest and …… we love her and love Wesley,” said Seaman. “He’s a very smart little boy. We want to see him get an education and be successful and know that he’s not alone. He has a family. He’s not going to be all by himself.”

And so both families became as one.

This story brings to mind a movie:

Stepmom (1998): A terminally-ill woman must deal with her ex-husband’s new lover, who will be their children’s stepmother.

That was a quarter-century ago.

Seems like given the state of this world today, we could all use a reminder about true love … and the real meaning of life.

That’s today’s story idea. And God bless Tricia Seaman and her family including Wesley.

Other stories in this year’s A Story Idea Each Day for a Month:

Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8
Day 9
Day 10
Day 11
Day 12

Each day in April, I invite you to join me in comments to do some brainstorming. Take each day’s story idea and see what it can become when we play around with it. These are valuable skills for a writer to develop.