The Unsinkable Willie Beavers



I've had crazy dreams lately.  I always seem to have more vivid dreams when I'm away from home, but these dreams lately have ranked pretty high on the crazy scale.  The other night I dreamed that Willie and I were being chased by men wearing civil war clothing and carrying bayonet guns.  They were shooting at us and we were dodging the giant, paint ball sized bullets that were raining all around us.  We came up on a hill and threw ourselves down it, tumbling head over foot like that scene from "The Princess Bride."  I was picking up sage brush, twigs and stickers as I rolled down the hill, but when we got to the bottom Willie was surprising unscathed.  I laid at the bottom on the hill, hoping the sage brush would hide me from the fast approaching enemy.  Willie had no cover and as he stood up the enemy opened fire.  I watched in horror as rounds of fat bullets hurdled toward him.  He stood, still as a statue, as the bullets hit him in the chest then fell to the ground as if he was protected by a shield.
The enemy continued to fire as the bullets bounced off him like raindrops.  Will bent down, picked up a bullet, then rolled it around in his hand. 
"That's all they got?" He said to me, smiling.
That's when I woke up.  What a silly dream!  Today we discovered the meaning of the dream.
The resident doctor woke us up this morning when she came in to exam Willie. She is always so pleasant so we don't mind her being our alarm clock.  She reported that Will's white count has risen another fraction of a point and he is now at 0.3!  Any movement upward is a victory to us so we all celebrated a little.  His red count has held steady since his last infusion, but he will need platelets again today.  She examined Willie and said that he is doing great and that he is at the crossroad where the counts should start coming up.
She opened the door to leave then turned around
"You know yesterday when you asked about only receiving chemo for 4 days?" she asked. 
We nodded.  We had asked the team how it was possible that he got away with only 4 days of chemo when every other person on this unit has to do weeks on end of the drugs.
"I thought about it last night and I thought that maybe you are thinking it wasn't effective because the chemo was so short and you are doing so well." 
She was exactly right.  That is what we were trying to ask, but hadn't phrased well yesterday.  How is it that he got away with only 4 days of chemo and he tolerated it better than some people handle the common cold?
"I want to assure you that you did in fact receive chemo!" She said, and we all laughed. 
"In fact," she said "we gave you the strongest stuff we have, so we are just as amazed as you are at how well you are doing!  The reason other people receive treatments for a longer amount of time is because we can't give them as big of a dose so they receive the same amount you did, it just takes a lot longer to administer it."
Suddenly my dream made sense.  He has taken hits from the strongest chemo out there like bullets hurled at his chest, but just like the dream, he has proven to be stronger than the drugs.  It's like he is standing here with an IV of the strongest medication available pulsing through him while saying "that's all you got?"

He is a champ.  Nothing can touch Willie Beavers!

It is his strength that I first became acquainted with years ago.  It was well known around the camp that we worked at that he was the strongest, most intimidating person on campus.  He always wore tank tops that revealed his threatening biceps and a camouflaged hat that was printed in yellow,black and grey.  The biceps were helpful in building his intimidating persona, but the hat, I felt, was always a bit on the silly side.  It was a fisherman's style hat with a large floppy brim and long leather ties that he kept fastened under his stern goatee.  It was the type of hat you would expect to see old men wearing as they relaxed their retired lives away in fishing boats, but Will wore it as if it were a uniform and I quickly learned that you don't question Will Beavers or mock any of his apparel, no matter how silly it may seem!
He would do rounds around the campus at night to make sure that campers and counselors were where they were supposed to be.  Anyone who crossed him on the wrong side of curfew can tell you that the results aren't pretty. 
Will Beavers was the law and that law could not be debated.
I was the new girl at camp and the innocent Utahn that was begging to be pranked.  The first week of camp I was called into the main office.  They needed me to run over to Beaver's room and tell him that he was needed to take a camper to a Dr.s appointment.  It was around 9AM and the rest of the camp was already up so I assumed he would be awake as well.  I walked over to the Men's dorms which were referred to a "the donuts."  That year the camp had moved from its usual cabin and campground style location to a college campus.  The college kids were gone for the summer so the counselors and campers stayed in the empty dorms.  The boys dorms were build in an unusual circular style with the common room in the middle and the rooms surrounding it.  It looked like a donut and it was easy to become lost when trying to find a room.
That's exactly what I did that morning I was sent to find Will.  I wandered around the donut, knocking on doors and calling his name until it became clear that he wasn't there.  I returned to the main office to report my findings. The morning meeting was just beginning and I was surprised when the entire room erupted in laughter when I reported that I wasn't able to find Beavers to deliver the message.
"You tried to wake up Beavers!" one of the counselors said incredulously.  "You've got guts!"
I soon learned that they had been trying to prank me by having me wake up the sleeping Beaver which is one of the most dangerous things one can do.  I laughed along with them, while simultaneously making a mental note to avoid Will Beavers.  If he was so tough that people were using him to pull pranks on each other, then I wasn't sure if I was strong enough to last in his presence.
I began to tread gently around him.  A few nights later, my friend and I went in search of a guy that lived in Will's donut.  We entered the common room and I was immediately on edge when we found Beavers sitting in the middle of the room, kicked back in an easy chair with his hat secured in place.
"What's up?" He greeted us, in a normal, non-threatening tone. 
I don't think I had talked to him much before this moment and remember being surprised that he actually greeted us.  We asked about the guy we were looking for and he informed us he was gone. We turned to leave but he stopped us
"Why don't you stay a while?" he said, motioning to another pair of easy chairs "sit down!"
We sat, more out of duty than desire.
I remember the silence that followed.  It seemed to stretch out forever and I felt the need to fill it with mindless chatter, but remained silent in fear of this man that was also know as "the Beav".  I have always been a mindless babbler.  I have no problem discussing the stupidest of topics for hours on end.  Will, on the other hand, rations out his conversations with careful precision.  In a way I'm jealous of that quality because it adds a level or importance to the small amount of things he does say.
When Beavers speaks, the world listens!
He finally broke the silence by asking where we were from and that launched us into a conversation that ended up lasting all night.  We talked about our families, our goals for the future and then pondered the deep questions on life.
"Beavers," I asked, in a quiet moment near the end of the night "What makes you happy?"
It was asked lightly, in a joking way, but I was actually curious.  What made this guy tick?  I had to know.
"Oh you know," he said, leaning back and lacing his fingers together behind his head "A little bit of this, that and the other!"
I have never laughed so hard.  Life according to Beavers is a beautifully simple thing.
That may have been the defining moment of the beginning of our relationship.  I left there that night more fascinated with this curious man than I was afraid of his demeanor.  I liked his view of life so much that I later stitched his statement onto a pillow as a gift,  It reads:
"You know what makes me happy? A little bit of this, that and the other."
We have been together for 6 years now and our lives have been nothing but happiness, filled with a little bit of this that and the other.  Our current challenge would probably fall into "the other" category, but we are still managing to find happiness in our trials.
Our lunch date today was awesome!  We walked over to the Nexus cafe which is the secret cafeteria we discovered on our walk last night.  They had an overwhelming amount of options and Will and I finally settled on Mexican food.  We ate our food outside under the afternoon sun.  It was fantastic!
We are still awaiting results from the bone marrow biopsy.  There was talk of the results coming in today, but it's after 5PM and I have a feeling the lab has closed down for the day.  We will keep you posted as we hear results.  Until then, keep your fingers crossed and your prayers coming that the results will be good!
Happy Wednesday Everyone!  And may the Giants win tonight!