Out of the cold

It's every parent's worst nightmare. Your child is out there somewhere in the freezing cold. They are hurting. And you don't know where they are.

That was the real life nightmare that our best friends Marianne and Dave faced on New Year's Eve as they and the police and friends searched frantically for Ben, their 16-year old who left a party on the coldest night of the year and never made it home.

It's a miracle that Ben is alive. But he is, against all odds, very much OK despite spending the night outside in subzero weather and receiving severe frostbite.

My heart aches for them all. A very typical knuckle-headed thing for a teen to do - drinking under-aged, drinking too much - it could happen to anyone and has happened to most of us, But on the coldest night of the year, it was a matter of life and death. When they finally found Ben, his body temp was 88 degrees.

Now out of ICU at Mass General, where he received the very best care from specialists, he's now in recovery at the amazing Shriners Burn Unit.

It will be a long recovery. But the whole town is behind Ben and the whole family.

Mari is one of those special people. We tease her that she was born with a "helping gene." She has been a helping angel to so many, that now she finds herself completely overwhelmed by love and help and compassion from...well, the whole town...and many other parts of the country and a few places around the world as well.

Which isn't to say that what she's going through isn't hell. Because she is. Utterly.

So as one of her buddies who has shared parenting and politics and adventures and getaways and laughs for many years...I am heart sick, but, as usual, incredibly inspired by her.

I read Mari's daily posts on carepages.com and marvel and dwell in her optimism, her pain and her humor in the face of the toughest days she's ever faced.

Because you see, it's no surprise that Ben is such an amazing human being. He's a musician, a poet, a pop culture vulture, a hockey player...he has a deep, pure heart like his mother, and a rapier wit like his father. He's the bass player in the best new band eva - Spang. And soon he will, no doubt, get those fingers, healed from frostbite, back on the gorgeous acoustic bass he got for Christmas.

I have tried here with these inadequate words to describe how horrible, how amazing and overwhelming these past few days have been...but in the end it requires poetry to describe it.

I'll leave it to Ben to bring the right words.

I can't even say how much it means to all of us, Ben, that you're here in the world with us after coming too close to leaving us.

Hang in there. You are precious. And clearly, the universe has big plans for you.