As you now know, Saturday was the culmination of a hard week. A strange week. A worrisome and sad week.

It taught me a lot:

📌That there are EMS workers out there who are dispatched and come to your door as soon as they can to assess and help. The ones I met were immigrants or the children of immigrants and if I could I would adopt them; I was so grateful. Others work the night shift and move you from one hospital to another in the dead of the night. They may not be immigrants but they keep on keeping on and give a damn. I was so grateful;

📌That there are people at the hospitals who are working hard long hours on a holiday weekend without complaint. They treat you with professionalism and respect. The whole row of them at the desk were immigrants or children of immigrants. I was so grateful;

📌That there are people working all-nighters at the hospital, ready to admit incoming patients at 2:00 am. They greet you with a smile and make you feel like you are home. They clean you and help you with the most personal functions. Some are immigrants or the children of immigrants. I was so grateful;

📌That the cab driver who takes you home at 3:00 am who you find at the hospital door, is quiet and professional and is receptive to talk. He has an African accent. I tell him he is a wonderful driver.

Upon delivering me safely to my door he turns in his seat and looks me in the eye. “My name is Diallo,” he says. “Do you know my name?”

It is familiar, but I can’t recall.

He adds, “1999.”

The name sinks in. I remember. Amadou Diallo. A twenty-three year old kid, shot to death on February 4, 1999, in the Bronx, mistaken for a rapist, shot over forty times by police. My cabdriver is a member of the Diallo family. I am moved to tears. Here is this sweet man, an immigrant, taking me home safely in the middle of the night. A man who knows pain; a compatriot in pain.

“Mr. Diallo,” I said, I am so sorry. I will pray for your family.”
“And I will pray for your husband,” he offered, sincerely.

I will never forget my connections with and to these people.

Amadou Diallo

📌

Addendum:

Let’s not forget how much we owe to the young neurologist, Dr. Mary Vo at NYPresbyterian/Weill Cornell, a brilliant doctor in her 30’s who made the initial diagnosis, & referrals and led us to Dr. Rohan Ramakrishna, a shining young neurosurgeon who initially installed the brain shunt and who fixed the snag causing the problem at this time. Two young people. The children of immigrants.