Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Michele Coxon's memories of Marilyn

Michele Coxon was Marilyn's manual lymph drainage massage therapist who brought Don Kellogg in to help. In my short speech to the International NLN Conference, where many of the attendees were therapists like Michele, I said this about Marilyn and Michele:

"The last smile I ever saw on my wife's face was when she last saw and thanked Michele Coxon, her manual lymph drainage massage therapist who had dropped in for just a visit."

Michele has extended her practice and now has a web presence as Stillpoint on the Coast. Her memory is immediately below:

Marilyn and I were "meant to be." She discovered me in a year old phone book she had laying around and I was more than happy to visit her home for treatments. The additional fact of being good friends with Don Kellog and bringing him on board to help her, feels like God was working through both of us to make this gift to her happen. There is no doubt in my mind that these events of synchronization are always choreographed by Source, by that Divine Spirit to which we surrender when working with the very ill, like Marilyn.

She was a conduit. She asked millions of questions, trusted me, and we had many wonderful conversations about life, health, living and dying. One day she was feeling too ill for treatment, so I sat by her bed and we just talked for an hour. It was healing for both of us.

I called her "The Captain" because she was still in control of her house and all that went on there from the bedroom. She delighted in looking out at her freshly landscaped back yard with all the lovely flowers in bloom during late summer and early fall and she poured over recipes to be made for meals that day for the family, not just for herself. I was a guest for dinner one night with her husband and sister and felt drawn into this family a little bit more and was grateful.

She mended her own garment one day and insisted on doing so. As I watched the intense focus of her mind on the threading of the needle, decision about how to proceed and the actual moving thread and needle into the fabric, it was with grace and assuredness that she completed the task, and beautifully, I might add.

My memories of Marilyn are never far from my heart and mind. I always told her that I received from her far more than I could ever give. Our last visit shortly before she died was understood by both of us to be the last and I am forever grateful that I was able to tell her how much I had grown to love her in those short four months that we worked together.

Marilyn is easy to love.

Michele Coxon
Lymphedema Therapist
Pacifica, CA

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Marilyn lost her life to cancer but was able to truly "live" until the very end due to a lymphedema garment from Don Kellogg, inventor and founder of Telesto-Medtech. It is due to the "living" he provided Marilyn and through his suggestion and connection with Saskia Thiadens of the National Lymphedema Network that the Marilyn Westbrook Garment Fund exists. It needs other people's help to remain a living memorial of Marilyn. Please help other people receive the gift of living by donating to the Marilyn Westbrook Garment Fund. Thank you.

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