I went to see him and say goodbye, and I am coming home with hope

Connie Mieryteran, former owner of Alberto’s Restaurant on the South Hill in Bonners Ferry, was one of the first people to give Mikey Bjoraker the chance to be an adult after he graduated from high school, giving him a real job. He was 19-years-old then. And while not every job concluded quite as expected, Connie was always impressed by the size of his try. She went to Post Falls today convinced she was going down to see Mikey, now 45 years-old, to say goodbye, thinking their 26-years friendship had reached its end far too soon.

“I don’t feel that way now,” Connie said this evening on the way home from Post Falls, somewhere around Sandpoint. “I thought I’d be feeling he was ready to be with his Mom again. He is very badly hurt. He has a long way to go, and if he comes back, we can’t know if he’ll be the Mikey he was. We can’t say how he’ll be tomorrow. But I went to see him and say goodbye, and I am coming home with hope.”

Yesterday, doctors in the critical care unit at Kootenai Health said Mikey was in a coma and that there was nothing, no medication, no procedure they could offer … no “medical miracle.” His best hope was time.

Today, physicians at North Idaho Advanced Care, 600 N Cecil Road, Post Falls, ID, affirmed what her heart told her … Mikey was not in a coma.

“He was in a coma yesterday,” Connie said. “There is no telling how he’ll be tomorrow. But today, he is not saying goodbye. He is letting us know there is hope.”

Mikey is by no means conscious, Connie said, but he is not unaware. She can’t say he knew it was she who was beside him. but he knew she was there.

“He responded with his eyes,” she said, “it felt like he wanted to say something, but he couldn’t because of the feeding and breathing tubes.”

But his eyes do peek briefly from beneath heavy lids, she said. Though closed, they roll toward the voices talking to him.

She did confirm early reports … unbelievable on their face but true nonetheless. Mikey is a terrible mass of deep and severe bruises, hematomas, contusions, ecchymoses and other awful synonyms, But somehow he suffered no fractures. No broken bones or internal bleeding of any significance, which explains why physicians in critical care had so little to offer Mikey but that most maddening of commodities — tincture of time.

“It is amazing,” Connie said. “He had to have had angel on his shoulder.”

Mikey’s room is Spartan, she said, but there was a splash of color; a Special Olympics Idaho poster brought in, she believes, to remind him just how strong he is, to remind him just how huge and powerful the size of his try.

Connie said she was told Mikey was now allowed cards, visitors, flowers and letters, but in the age of HIPPA, my request for confirmation was declined as I am not family or known friend. Call back tomorrow.

I thought of trying to explain to him that to my knowledge, there wasn’t a soul in Boundary County who Mikey didn’t love too much, not many people in Boundary County who didn’t love Mikey too much right back.

But I was too tired to try to explain to someone who didn’t seem to appreciate the concept. I have hope Mikey will show them.

Mikey Bjoraker is a patient at North Idaho Advanced Care, 600 N Cecil Rd., Post Falls, ID 83854.

Send cards and letters at will. Call (208) 262-2800 before you go or send flowers. And  please, pray for him too much.