The Cleft Chronicles

Jun. 21, 2012 at 12:28pm with 5 notes

Reblogged from dftbbrodie

dftbbrodie:

Mom says she can still see him in my orthodontist, Dr. Keith Harvey’s old office with me at 3 and a half months old wrapped in a pink blanket, Dr. Harvey holding me for the first time. Yeah. He’s been with me the whole way. Almost 18 years. I love my team, I’ve had them forever, but with orthodontics being a more ongoing and constant thing, I’ve seen him more.

He’s always been like almost another daddy. He always called me the “daughter he never had”, looking out for me, and telling me to stay away from boys (especially his). He used to say ‘you can hit me if it hurts’ because he was sure he wasn’t going to let something hurt me. I always left with hugs (and something out of the treasure box until I got too old). Now we leave the tough stuff up to him because he’s better at being the ‘bad guy’ when things just have to hurt but I trust him above anyone else so it’s always okay. His opinion was the one I wanted when I didn’t know what to do about my jaw surgery. He was the one wiping my tears when I first got the screws turned. Needless to say, he means the world to me.

Dr. Harvey has always gone out of his way to work with me and make me as comfortable and happy as possible. He goes above and beyond with everything he does.

He had told my mother and sister about how in college, he was big into singing and he’d been told he should’ve gone to Nashville! So naturally I said that I wanted him to sing me a song for my graduation present. Before I go off to college, I wanted him to break out his guitar and sing for me. And he accepted my challenge.

For the next couple weeks he would tell me about him tuning his favorite guitar and trying to find the perfect song. He wouldn’t even tell the girls working in the office (I’ve been with them since I was little too, Dee got the honors of taking the braces off because she’d been working on me the most/longest).

So today rolled around. The big day. Getting my braces off. And after the long process was done, I went back to one of the consultation rooms to wait for him to get a break in between patients to sing for me. After a while of the girls popping in and out asking if he was doing it yet, back he came with his guitar in tow.

Me sitting in the orthodontist chair and him on his little rolly stool he always has, he faced me and with a smile that spoke volumes, started to play. He sang a slightly abridged version of “Angel Flying too Close to the Ground” by Willie Nelson.

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If you had not have fallen
Then I would not have found you
Angel flying too close to the ground
And I patched up your broken wings
And hung around a while
Tried to keep your spirits up
And your fever down
I knew someday that you would fly away
For love’s the greatest healer to be found
So leave me if you need to
I will still remember
Angel flying too close to the ground
Fly on, fly on past the speed of sound
I’d rather see you up
Than see you down
Leave me if you need to
I will still remember
Angel flying too close to the ground

As you can see in the video, I lost it around “And I patched up your broken wings” and just started crying. I don’t know if you can see it but the girls were crying too. I think he was the only one dry eyed. He really did patch me up and I may be leaving him to go off to college and I may be coming to the end of my journey, but he’s always going to be a huge part of my life. I never expected him to have a voice like that either!

I’m always going to love him for who he is, what he’s done, and what he’s meant to me all these years. He couldn’t have done anything more special for me and I don’t think he will ever really know how much he means to me. I couldn’t have been blessed by a more wonderful team of doctors and specifically, a more wonderful orthodontist.

I love you Dr. Harvey (and the girls) <3