Yet, she almost feels like family.  I hear her voice in my head.

Alicia is the product specialist at Hardy Nutritionals – the micronutrient company that provides the probiotics and daily essential supplementation that are KEY to bolstering cells and promoting health to the gut microbiome and subsequently increasing proper brain function.

A lot of words…I know.

Suffice it to say that BECAUSE my daughter, (we’ll call her K) takes these daily essentials and BECAUSE they provide healing properties to her body, she is able to slowly decrease her doctor-prescribed medication — the culprit for her body’s overall decline in health, her mental/emotional instability and the rise in the horrific side effects that have taken control of her life for 6 years now.

Weaning

off a daily regimen of 6 various medications, dosed high enough to question the legality of such a prescription, is no easy feat!  I had packed several large bags, temporarily closed my business and came to live with K for an indeterminate amount of time in order to manage this daunting task. I nearly screamed in anger each morning as I crushed pills, separated them into 1/8 miniature powder mounds, labeled and bagged what was remaining and slowly but surely decreased K’s dosages.

And then … we would wait …

… logging side effects and having to be careful of every single thing she ingested while simultaneously increasing her micronutrient dosage as her body slowly — very slowly — began to respond positively.  I was prepared to live with her for as long as it took.

So who is Alicia?

She is the voice on the other end of the line that we have the pleasure of speaking with each week when we put a call into Hardy for K’s check-in.  She helped guide us through the weaning process, relying on her own expert knowledge and with the aid of medical expertise from doctors and scientists associated with Hardy.

Alicia is one of the most caring, kind souls that I’ve come across during this process.  I imagine what her face looks like, and I’m positive she has a glow about her — perhaps even a visible halo swirling over her head.  I’m sure she would, in her gentle, humble way, deny any “angelic” tendencies, but I see her that way all the same.

Alicia was recommended to us by another of her “patients” … our dear friend Christine, who put her trust in Alicia’s guidance and care in reducing and weaning herself of psychotropic medications.

I remember mine and Alicia’s first conversation vividly.  She spent time listening, asking questions, displaying EMPATHY for our situation. allowing me to ramble at times.

I’m sure I sounded desperate … because I WAS!

I know I cried. 

And I believe she may have actually felt my pain herself (as a mother) on the deepest level – viscerally.

It was as if I had known her for years, yet I was speaking to her for the very first time.  She remained on the phone with me for an hour or more.  There was no concern for time.

She wasn’t rushed.  Didn’t make me feel like she needed to get off the phone because I was

     *keeping her from her other patients

     *keeping her from her lunch break

     *keeping her from the end of her day and she was ready to high tail it out the door.

I can honestly say that I have NEVER EVER come across anyone in the medical field who remotely comes close to the genuine concern and care I felt from Alicia during that initial consultation.

K and I have developed a relationship with “extension 102” — with Alicia from Hardy.  The way Alicia speaks to K is not unlike the way a mother speaks to her own child.  Alicia has taken K under her wing.  And the crazy thing about it is, even now, whenever we call, Alicia still spends all the time we need to talk us through the struggle, talk K off the ledge, calm her, show grace in the areas where K feels she has failed.

Alicia STILL takes AS MUCH TIME AS NEEDED … 30 minutes, 45, an hour or more.  She is never in a rush.  Her tenderness shows through.  She calls us if she has not heard from us — making sure everything is ok.

I believe she takes her patients “home with her” … that it doesn’t end for her when she puts down the receiver to the phone, powers down her computer, pushes in her desk chair and turns off the lights.  Her patients’ names are written on her heart.  They are on her lips.  She has inscribed them into her mind and spends much of her down time thinking about them.  I know it.  How do I know?

Do you pray?

Alicia asked K, at the beginning of this journey, if K ever prayed.  Over the years K has drifted from her once stronger faith as she has searched for truth.  But lately, K has reached up and almost begged God to show up — has admitted to feeling a tug inside her that gives her moments of clarity, strength.  In her kindness, Alicia wasn’t looking for an answer from K.  She was probing to see if K

BELIEVED in the POWER OF PRAYER

because Alicia said that from that day forward she would have K’s name on her personal prayer list.  Alicia intended to bathe K in prayer.  To speak on K’s behalf.  To bend the ear of God for K, for me, for our family and wanted K to know that it is something she (Alicia) didn’t take lightly — that prayer is powerful.

Alicia — a total stranger — someone we have never met in person — cares enough to pray on a daily basis for K.  I tell you, as I write, I cannot stop the trickle of tears running down my cheek.  Have any of K’s psychiatrists EVER shown such care?

Have any of her other doctors, therapists, “friends” gone so far as to knock on Heaven’s door for my sweet daughter?

No, not one.

She has been sent to us — Alicia — to show us the extent of love and concern that our God has for us.  She is an angelic ambassador, who sits at a desk behind a computer screen and speaks truth in love to all with whom she comes in contact.

She ingests each story, each difficulty, each addiction, all manner of destructive behaviors that come as side effects of medications and wraps each one in mercy and grace, care and concern and then lays those things at the feet of Jesus …

…asking for strength and courage to be granted to each of her patients to take one more step towards wellness, to face each new day even though it’s a struggle and to not only survive the difficulty but to eventually thrive with a life-altering freedom that is beyond what they believed possible!

We owe a debt of gratitude to her … to the angel among us who’s name is

Alicia.

“I’m Your Angel”   by Celine Dion

“No mountain’s too high for you to climb.  All you have to do is have some climbing faith.  No river’s too wide for you to make it across.  All you have to do is believe it when you pray.  And then you will see the morning will come and every day will be bright as the sun.  All your fears, cast them on me.  I just want you to see …

I’ll be your cloud up in the sky.  I’ll be your shoulder when you cry.  I’ll hear your voice when you call – I am your angel.  And when all hope is gone, I’m here.  No matter how far you are, I’m near.  It makes no difference who you are – I am your angel.

I saw the teardrops and I heard you cry.  All you need is time to seek me and you shall find.  You have everything and you’re still lonely.  It doesn’t have to be this way.  Let me show you a better day.  And then you will see the morning will come and all of your days will be bright as the sun.  All of your fears, cast them on me.  How can I make you see …

I’ll be your cloud up in the sky.  I’ll be your shoulder when you cry.  I’ll hear your voice when you call – I am your angel.  And when all hope is gone, I’m here.  No matter how far you are, I’m near.  It makes no difference who you are – I am your angel.

Grace will keep us safe and warm and I know we will survive.  And when it seems as if your end is drawing near, don’t you dare give up the fight.  Just put your trust beyond the skies!

I’ll be your cloud up in the sky.  I’ll be your shoulder when you cry.  I’ll hear your voice when you call – I am your angel.  And when all hope is gone, I’m here.  No matter how far you are, I’m near.  It makes no difference who you are – I am your angel.