My California boyfriend was in Canada on a one month visa, but given the boot after Immigration discovered he was still here after 11 months. May 1981 and we were in a hurry to leave. I was finishing off my year in Kinesiology at U of W, yet had to work, buy and safety the VW camper van, get someone to move into my home to take care of my dog, cat, plants, leaky hot water heater and triplex for the summer. Charles was a stain glass craftsman and had left me his tools, display cases, glass and crafts to pack up and meet him at the ISKCON temple in Detroit. We had planned a momentous road trip back to San Diego selling at flea markets enroute. After a week of waiting he was impatient.
I had to pull a few all-nighters with work and preparations and I had started to drink coffee to keep going. Exhausted, suddenly I felt like a brick wall had fallen on me. Crushing weight on my chest, drenched in perspiration, every breath hurt. I lay helpless on my couch, unable to move. I thought I should call an ambulance. My dad died at 52 of a MI, I was only 31; it could not be a myocardial infarction.
I called my friend Tim, a good dowser and we discussed my condition. I went to his rooming house and he found an appropriate homeopathic remedy, Crotalus horridus 30, rattlesnake venom an excellent anticoagulant. Within twenty minutes the agonizing pain was gone and the sweating stopped. Within 2 hours I was on the road to Detroit, getting there at dawn.
The Krishna temple was an old mansion, now on the wrong side of town. It had been donated to ISKCON and housed about 35 men, women and children. The grounds were covered in fragrant flowers and strutting peacocks. I had arrived when the devotees were dancing in ecstasy as they did every dawn, men on one side, women on the other. Krishna devotees are hospitable hosts and we had planned on staying at the various temples across the states.
After a Lassi and semolina pudding, he repacked and we left for Cinncinati to check out the Gospel Caravan. We were fond of live devotional music and we knew the Five Blind Boys of Alabama were on the circuit that night. He drove and I slept. It was a glorious summer, travelling from Texas to California and up to Victoria, connecting with Paul Watson Of The Sea Shepherds in Vancouver, volunteering our services and van to pick up supplies. Visiting with friends, picking fruit, festivals, fleamarkets and courses.
When I returned to school in the fall, we studied EKG and stress test on a treadmill. The instructor did mine twice as I had inverted t-waves, and informed me I had had a silent heart attack recently. I told him it was not so silent.
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