#MyGreatestVictory

#MyGreatestVictory?

 

This year I “suddenly” turned 65. What a  shock!

 

I have no idea why I awoke last night thinking of all the times I should have died before now…

 

• as an infant, I was born underweight and struggling. It was suggested to my parents that they not bother naming me, because it was unlikely that I would survive. I was sickly for almost three years.
• as a young child, I was almost struck by a car at the YWCA when I stepped between two parked cars, saw no one approaching, and ran out, only to run smack dab into the right front fender of a car that must have pulled out from a parking spot on the street. It screeched to a halt; I ran into its fender…and took a deep, deep breath!
• as a slightly older child, I grabbed an inner tube and swam out into Spanaway Lake–unattended–hoping to find caterpillars on a dock; a neighbor spotted me out there all alone and called me back to shore with a strict admonishment to “Get home! I am going to tell your mother and father about this!”
• as a teenager, I was almost kicked in the face by a wildly gyrating calf who wasn’t at all happy about the idea of being ear-marked: its rear hoof came so close to my head as it vaulted over me that it kicked my short hair with such force that it would have sailed into the next county if it hadn’t been attached
• as a young adult, I was almost struck by a fast-moving vehicle while I was carrying a protest sign against unnecessary, cruel animals research being perpetrated on chimpanzees at a university. The vehicle swatted the sign out of my left hand, scarcely missing taking my hand and arm with it. The driver didn’t even slow down. (I reckon he or she disagreed with the protest!)
• as a young adult, I was following my parents in a vehicle in Mississippi as we were driving from Georgia to California to begin another restaurant build. After my parents rounded a curve several hundred feet ahead of me, a big eighteen-wheeler came barreling around the same corner in the opposite direction (toward me). Suddenly, a car ahead of the eighteen wheeler turned on his left-hand signal and slowed to a stop, waiting for me to pass so he could make the turn safely. But the driver of the eighteen wheeler was coming way too fast to stop before it reached the tail end of the waiting vehicle ahead of it, so it roared into my lane, spotted me oncoming, and pulled back and around the right-hand side of the waiting vehicle in the last split second available to him, throwing himself and his rig into the ditch (upright, fortunately).  My mom and dad saw the wreck happen and knew I was right in the thick of things. But everyone was fine; just shaken up and very, very lucky!
• as a volunteer at a wild cat sanctuary, I was bringing a bucket of water to a formerly badly-mistreated cougar with a serious attitude when the cage door he was in came open. Apparently it had not been completely latched the last time someone had serviced the cage. I put the bucket down and stood very still behind it while the animal drank its fill, hoping that’s all he’d decide to do. When he finished, he turned around and returned to the cage. I latched the door securely, breathing a huge sigh of relief!
• on another occasion, a veterinarian asked me to help while he sutured the same cougar’s tail. (It had been badly bitten by a neighboring cat when it went into the other cat’s enclosure.) I was holding this anesthetized “tiger by the tail” when it suddenly woke up and rabbit kicked me in the chest two or three times, almost knocking me out, while trying to get me to let go of its tail. The vet yelled, “Hold on!” and gave the cat another shot. Thankfully, he quickly went under again!
• at another sanctuary, I was walking by a lion enclosure a good four or five feet away from the fence, but there was a place between the gate and the other fencing that was just large enough to allow a massive paw to reach out at warp speed  and grab the jeans material at the back of my left knee.  His claws ripped the material there: I escaped unscathed, none the worse for “tear”… But I never went that close to that enclosure gate again and made sure that I reported the incident.
• Not long ago I was stricken with a deep vein thrombosis from knee to ankle and multiple pulmonary embolisms in both lungs. I had no symptoms except for a slightly swollen left leg–no pain or redness. If I hadn’t experienced uncommon shortness of breath on a customary walk and had it checked out, I would have been a goner. In fact, when I had it checked out at Urgent Care on a Friday, my EKG and lung x-ray showed no abnormalities. It wasn’t until I got a CT scan the following Monday that they slapped me immediately into a hospital bed and instructed me not to move until they had filled me with enough medicine to make it more likely that I would survive the next 24 hours.

 

There might be other “close calls” that I don’t even know about, or can’t remember now, but ten are plenty to show why I feel so lucky to have made it to 65!

 

But perhaps #mygreatestvictory–other than finding various ways to make a living as a writer for the last ten years (my lifelong goal) was being able to pay back DeForest Kelley for all of the trust and faith he had always placed in me from the first time we met on May 4, 1968 until he passed away on June 11, 1999.

 

Being able to successfully serve as De’s trusted personal assistant, caregiver and confidant during the last three months of his life is among my two greatest victories–and he was instrumental in both of them. He launched my writing career in 1969, after all! (“The Real McCoy”, TV Star Parade, January 1969 issue).

 

 

Others followed: (Grit, March 6-12, 1988)

 

Links to articles and interviews about Kristine M. Smith and DeForest Kelley

 

USA TODAY: http://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/2016/02/25/star-treks-deforest-kelley-real-mccoy/80753966/

1701 NEWS: http://1701news.com/node/998/deforest-kelleys-personal-life-spotlighted-memoir.html

THE FRINGE RADIO SHOW Jan 16, 2016: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBg_1l4iQWE

TREKS IN SCI-FI 2006 (Audio interview): http://treksinscifi.com/podcast_notes/?p=94

STAR TREK.COM http://www.startrek.com/article/exclusive-interview-author-kristine-m-smith-remembers-deforest-kelley

ENCORE LIFE MAGAZINE, pages 55-58: http://issuu.com/heart4home/docs/volume_2__summer?e=1227995/2921778

STARBASE 972: https://starbase972.com/about_e/kelley-tribute/

THE MAC WIRE: http://themacwire.blogspot.com/2013/08/exclusive-interview-remembering-star.html

SLICE OF SCI FI: http://www.sliceofscifi.com/2006/11/01/the-real-deforest-kelley/

TREK MOVIE: http://trekmovie.com/2008/06/11/remembering-deforest-kelley/

 

 

As anyone will tell you who knew him, De was a salt of the earth kind of guy, and I always figured I would have to “pay forward” his kindness, but when AC Lyles, a Paramount producer, executive producer and  Goodwill Ambassador asked me if I could help De during his final months, I dropped everything (including my career at Warner Bros., with my boss’s blessing–he was a huge Trek fan!) and said “Yes!”

 

I’ve discovered that close calls are often grace calls: reminders that each of us is here for a reason, and for many reasons. Find yours and you’ll always feel very much alive!

 

AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE: http://www.amazon.com/Kristine-M.-Smith/e/B001HN12DS