Gabby_ A Story of Courage and Hope - Alison Hanson [100]
What would Gabby want? Pia was reminded of the ways in which Gabby wanted to encourage civility.
On March 18, 2010, during the height of the health-care debate, Gabby wrote: “I know the last couple weeks have been hard on everyone—phones ringing incessantly, and angry constituents sometimes behaving badly. It makes me very upset to see any of you treated with rudeness or disrespect. You all have been amazing in your professionalism by demonstrating patience and kindness toward all who contact us. Your compassion reflects well not just on our office, but on our United States government.”
On March 23, 2010, after Gabby’s Tucson office was vandalized, she wrote to staffers to say how troubled she was. “I never want to put any of you in a situation where you would be harmed or even feel threatened. It has been a hard year and an exhausting few weeks. We all know that nothing worth achieving in life comes easy. Considering how monumental this [health-care] bill is, we have gotten by with relatively few scrapes and bruises.”
On Wednesday, January 5, 2011, three days before she was shot, Gabby thanked her staffers for making the swearing-in reception at her office “a smashing success.” She mentioned that the Republicans had taken control of the House. “Life will be a bit different in the minority, but we will figure out how we can still be effective and rock our issues hard.”
What would Gabby want? She’d want Pia and her staffers to redouble their commitment to those issues. She’d want them to honor Gabe’s legacy by passionately serving the needs of her constituents. And she’d want them to take good care of themselves.
On January 9, Gabby’s staffers met in Tucson with a counselor employed by the House of Representatives. They were heartbroken, angry, shell-shocked. They spoke of survivor’s guilt. They cried together. And then they went back to work.
Gabby’s staff opened the office on Monday, January 10, just like their boss would have wanted them to do. They were there for the people of the district—no matter what. They took no days off to grieve. (Magnetic pegs indicated which staffers were “in” or “out” of the office. Gabe was left as “in,” and someone added in blue marker “in our hearts forever.”)
During the first three weeks after the shooting, while Gabby’s staffers were still struggling with their own personal traumas, they tended to nine hundred active requests from constituents seeking assistance. More than one hundred of those were new cases that arrived after January 8. Constituents had issues with Social Security, Medicare, veterans benefits, and student loans. Some were facing foreclosure on their homes and needed help from the federal government’s Making Home Affordable Program. Others had problems obtaining visas. Gabby would want those constituents to receive the help they sought.
Gabe was dead. Two other colleagues, Ron Barber and Pam Simon, were seriously injured. And Gabby was fighting for her life. But her staffers said they still considered her to be their North Star. They gave great thought every day to the question “What would Gabby want?” And through their grief, they didn’t just soldier on, they rocked.
The first few weeks after the shooting were marked by progress. On January 16, Gabby was taken off the ventilator. She slowly emerged from her medically induced coma, and was able to sit up in bed and dangle her legs. She’d touch her wound with her left hand, and adjust her hospital gown. These were good signs that she was aware of herself, which is not the case with all brain-injury patients. She even reached out at one point and gave me an unexpected backrub, just like she used to do.
On January 19, with the help of nurses, Gabby stood for a few moments by her bedside. She had her challenges, too, including a buildup of cerebrospinal fluid in her brain that required a drainage tube. But mostly, her doctors said they were thrilled that she had taken such positive steps so quickly. They upgraded her condition from “critical” to “serious.”
Meanwhile, I had