171 Ashley Ave.
Charleston, SC 29425
843-792-1414
800-424-MUSC
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May 2009
Dear faculty, Children's Hospital staff and other friends,
As I have been sitting with my mother who is slowing passing away, I have been thinking about the impact she has had on me through the years. My mother has been my mentor, teacher, and friend throughout my life. She has been such an inspiration for me and was always there for my brother, sister and I. My mother taught us during our time in kindergarten because we did not have the money to pay for preschool. She taught us at the age of three what we would later find when we were learning in the fourth grade. She studied with us every day, teaching us to read, to think and to love each other. She was also a very religious woman who was always helping the community through various societies in Hickory, NC. She sang to us on the porch, engendering a love of music. I can still hear her voice as she would sing, "Swing Low Sweet Chariot," and remember her sense of humor as we swung on the front porch swing on a sweaty evening before there was air conditioning.
My mother did so many things for us. She was deathly scared of swimming but we all learned to swim. She would drive our ski boat for hours completely oblivious to the daredevil stunts she put us through (teaching us to ski, riding on a tire tube and flipping over). During the school year, she tutored each of us as we needed it. In the summers, she made sure we were involved in various sporting activities.
I wrote an essay in 1965, noting that "my mother was the closest thing to the love of God as I could ever imagine." Last week, I sat at her bedside as she refused food, drink (she cannot swallow after her last stroke) and refused IV or tube feeding. As a physician, this final lesson has shown me the grace of dying and the wonder of living. She was still joking when she was able to speak and when I said, "I guess you're the only mother I have" she responded by saying, "I expect I will be the only Mother you will ever have."
I hope and pray for mothers and fathers that guide their children. I hope our children's hospital is able to provide the guidance to our patients and families that they so desperately need. I am working toward a time when all children have the enrichment that I was able to experience for free. It did not come as effortlessly as it seemed. When I was four, I remember my mother sitting at the kitchen table making us workbooks. Because of my mother, I know that money and possessions are not the most important things. The gift of learning how to live is one of the greatest gifts of love she gave to me.
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Sincerely,
L. Lyndon Key, MD
Chair, Department of Pediatrics |
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