Joan Hill - The Miracle Chase: Three Women, Three Miracles, and a Ten Year Journey of Discovery and Friendship

THE MIRACLE CHASE

THREE WOMEN, THREE MIRACLES,
and a
TEN YEAR JOURNEY of DISCOVERY AND FRIENDSHIP

JOAN LUISE HILL | KATIE MAHON | MARY BETH PHILLIPS, PHD

STERLING and the distinctive Sterling logo are registered trademarks of Sterling Publishing Co., Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hill, Joan Luise.

The miracle chase : three women, three miracles, and a ten year journey of discovery and friendship / Joan Luise Hill, Katie Mahon, Mary Beth Phillips, PhD.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-1-4027-7765-3 (hc-trade cloth : alk. paper) 1. Miracles. 2. Hill, Joan Luise.
3. Mahon, Katie. 4. Phillips, Mary Beth. 5. Catholic women--Religious life. I. Mahon, Katie. II. Phillips, Mary Beth. III. Title.

BT97.3.H56 2010
202'.117dc22

2010010656

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Published by Sterling Publishing Co., Inc.
387 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10016
2010 by Joan Luise Hill, Katie Mahon, Mary Beth Phillips
Distributed in Canada by Sterling Publishing
c/o Canadian Manda Group, 165 Dufferin Street
Toronto, Ontario, Canada M6K 3H6
Distributed in the United Kingdom by GMC Distribution Services
Castle Place, 166 High Street, Lewes, East Sussex, England BN7 1XU
Distributed in Australia by Capricorn Link (Australia) Pty. Ltd.
P.O. Box 704, Windsor, NSW 2756, Australia
Book design by Rachel Maloney

Manufactured in the United States of America
All rights reserved

Sterling ISBN 978-1-4027-7765-3

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To my husband, Gene, for his encouragement,
My children, David, Alyssa, and Greg for their inspiration,
And my family and friends for their love.
JLH

To Dick and Janie, who gave me the gift of faith
To Jim, Laura, and Allie who bring me joy at every turn.
KM

To Liz, Andrew, and Daniel
My three greatest Miracles.
MBP

CONTENTS

Miracles seem to me to rest not so much upon faces
or voices or healing power coming suddenly near us from afar off,
but upon our perceptions being made finer,
so that for a moment our eyes see and our ears can hear
what there is about us always.

WILLA CATHER , DEATH COMES FOR THE ARCHBISHOP

JOAN

What would make three women set off in search of the Holy Grail? I hope you believe me when I tell you that it was a miraclethree miracles, to be exact.

When one of your children is teetering on the edge of death, it changes things. You are forced to cut to the chase; how you feel, what you believe, and what is important become instantly clear. When a death sentence was handed to my fourteen-year-old son, it seemed unthinkable to connect the dots and see the picture the doctors were presenting, but I had to quickly grasp the enormity of the situation in order to go on.

As I look back, I realize my familys traumatic experience in the fall of 1999 became the tipping point for my life and in the lives of my two friends Katie and Meb. It caused a sudden shift in the natural order of things. As Meb later said, we were broken open we discovered a new dimension to our friendship, but it changed all three of us forever.

Still, in the beginning, I wanted life to get back to normal. Once the crisis with my son had passed, Meb, Katie, and I were finally able to meet for coffee one morning. As we traded updates on our work, kids, and various activities, Katie raised her eyebrows, smiled, and asked what should have been a simple question:

So, Joan, how are you?

Her inquisitive manner let me know she wasnt about to let me off with the standard, a simple Im fine. I knew she wasnt just asking out of courtesy, like the cashier at the grocery store. Katie really wanted to know how I felt about what had happened with my son and the events that still seemed so surreal. But I wanted no part of a deep, dark discussionI just wanted to sip my coffee in peace, relieved to know we had all survived.

Im fine. Really good, actually.

Katie was not convinced. She persisted. I mean, how do you really feel about what happened?

I did what I usually do when asked something I would rather avoid: I stalled. Uh, what part, Katie?

Not letting me off the hook so easily, her response cut to the chase. Joan, come on: the surgery, the movie, all of it, surely

I knew I was in trouble when Meb interrupted in her soothing psychoanalyst voice, a voice that makes you feel calm but isnt the one she usually uses with her friends. Isnt it possible there was a little more going on than just medical science and bizarre coincidence?

With the KatieMeb tag team in full swing, I knew I couldnt run away and hide; it would be best to just come clean. I looked at my two friends and told them something I hated to admit, even though it was the truth: I dont know.

As the Chinese proverb says, A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. In our case, it began with mine. If youre familiar with Lake Wobegon, the idyllic spot where all the women are good-looking, all the men are strong, and all the children are above averagethough the three of us accepted this reputation with amusementyou have a pretty good idea of the town where we all lived, just east of San Francisco.

Katie and Meb were two of my closest friends, though they barely knew each other. Mebs oldest son, Andrew, shared sports teams with my son David, and we had spent hours on the sidelines supposedly watching games, but mostly just talking. Truth is, I had heard of Meb long before I met her; as they say, her reputation preceded her. She was a small-town celebrity for all the work she had done in child-abuse preventionand had even been on Oprah ! Most people seemed to hold Meb in awe, but were also intimidated by her. I thought it was a little bit sad; she seemed to have lots of admirers, but few friends.To me, Meb was the perfect combination: she was smart and creative, and she enjoyed decorating for the holidays almost as much as I did.

I knew Katie because our daughters, Allie and Alyssa, had forged a close friendship as classmates in first grade. By the time they were ten, the girls collectively decided that Katie and I should teach their weekly religion class together. Katie was all I had wanted to be as an adolescent: tall, blond, blue-eyed, with a riveting sense of humor. As an added bonus, she loved chocolate and french fries, two of my major food groups. I admired how comfortable Katie seemed to be in her own skin: she was self-confident and tenacious. While I could waffle upon occasion, Katie was sure of herself, hanging on to her convictions like a dog with a bone. She seemed to be fearless.

I love putting people and projects together, and had tried to introduce these two wonderful women before. I had hoped the three of us could launch a new venturesomething to keep us engaged and make the world a better place. After all, we had skills and interests that complemented each other. Katie approached life as the straightforward banker she was: The bottom line... usually crept into her conversations, preceding some quickly deduced, eminently logical conclusion. Meb, on the other hand, was pure intuition, a psychotherapist who routinely thought outside the box, flexible in her thinking and willing to appreciate the value of spiritual alternatives. I was used to dealing with strong personalities and finding common ground after twenty-five years as a healthcare executive. Ambitious and optimistic, the three of us wanted it all: career, family, home, and happiness ever after.