Puzzling Trips to the Doctor

My mom doesn't look forward to her daily trips to Provo for her cancer treatments, but I actually have a hard time not getting a little bit excited. The radiation waiting room has a puzzle set up between the rows of chairs and I quite enjoy the time I spend there. The first day was a long visit and I worked for quite a while on a puzzle with lots and lots of snowmen on it. It was close to being finished and all that was left were the harder pieces, but I was able to fill in quite a few holes. The next day I was looking forward to working on it again, but it was gone and a new one was in it's place. This was a Charles Wysocki Winter Scene with houses and people. It was just barely started which made me happy because I knew I would get a chance to work on it for a few days.
I am not much of a border person. I am happy to let someone else work on the border while I focus on the easier parts of the puzzle. I like to work on places where there is a distinct difference in color and the buildings on this puzzle were just up my alley.
I didn't see too many other people who had an interest in the puzzles while I was there. The first day there was a man working on it when I got there. He told me he has to do one piece every time he came and then he could sit down and read his book. He was looking for one specific piece, with a unique shape, and it took him awhile to find it and then he was content to stop. Stop?! I even have a hard time stopping when my mom comes out, ready to leave. One day a lady came in and asked the receptionist at the counter if she could please work on the puzzle. Her husband was waiting for an appointment in a different office, but their office was boring and she'd rather wait in here. We had fun handing each other pieces for the part of the puzzle each of us were working on. Her husband came to look for her at one point and she said "I'll be right here." He asked if she wanted to go into the appointment with him and she said, "No, I'll be fine right here." I don't know if that was the answer that he wanted to hear, but he didn't seem to be too surprised by it.
One day while I was plugging away on the puzzle a woman approached me and asked me if I could do her a favor. They were making a brochure for the medical building and they needed some subjects to be in it. I tore myself away from the puzzle long enough to sign a wavier and get taken on a fun ride in and out and in and out and in and out of the sliding doors to the parking lot in a wheelchair carrying on a pretend conversation with the pretend employee who was pushing me. It was my one moment of fame and I'll never even know if I made the brochure or not. The photographer told me I did such a good job he was going to make a poster and put me smack dab in the middle. I think I'd rather be working on "my" puzzle than plastered on a poster.


It's fun every day to walk up to the puzzle and see what has been accomplished while I was gone. I wonder about those other puzzlers who come each day and put pieces into this community puzzle. Who are they waiting for? What kind of cancer is their family member or friend fighting against? How many puzzles will they work on before they stop coming? I was a little sad as I left the waiting room today. I won't be back to work on the puzzle anymore. I wonder when this one will be finished and what the next one will look like and who will come to take my place?