Do you have a 911 list?
“A true friend is someone who thinks that you are a good egg even though he knows that you are slightly cracked” (Bernard Meltzer)
Do you have a 9-11 list? I do. It’s on a pink heart-shaped Post-it note on my computer monitor (in the photo below it’s the second heart from the left).
At the top of the note are three letters: 9-1-1. Then a list of 6 names. This simple note is something that helped me keep my sanity and my heart intact during the last nine months of navigating through breast cancer.
I got the idea when one of my dear friends said that I could call her any moment of any day, even in the middle of the night if I needed to. She had been through a really tough time when she was young and her husband was being treated for cancer. One night she was at the end of her rope and called a friend in the middle of the night to talk for a couple of hours. Her friend never complained and just sat on the phone with her and let her talk. A simple thing, really, but in a desperate moment it was a lifeline.
I’ve always been one of those kinds of people who hates to ask for help. I pretended I was strong and brave and sort of a lone cowgirl. But breast cancer knocked me down and stomped on me.
So when my friend told me to call her for any reason anytime I needed to, I created a 911 list and put her name on it. Then someone else said the same thing to me, so I added her name. I ended up with six names on my list. And I used it. I called or emailed each of the six at different times to ask for help, and they responded.
Sometimes when life squashes you, you need a pink piece of paper with some names on it. And when you can’t think of what else to do, you look at that paper that represents so much love, compassion, caring, and sacrifice that you can’t really even comprehend it, and you know that you are loved. You have help. And you’re going to make it.
Do you have a 911 list?
And even more important, is your name on someone’s 911 list?
Sprinkles says "You can put ME on your 911 list"
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SUSY FLORY is a New York Times best selling author, speaker, and journalist who searches out big stories with happy endings. She's I'm always looking for true stories that inspire and challenge her readers to embrace a life of passion, boldness, & adventure. 
I call it my short sucker list – and I too have six people who I could call in the middle of the night to pick me up on the side of the road. (Of course they would then ask me what in the heck I was doing on the side of the road in the middle of the night.)