Survivor's Bell Rings Out

It was quiet in the Frances Mahon Deaconess Hospital chemotherapy ward last Wednesday. Nurses smiled at passersby and they milled from room to room; patients checked in at the front desk, received by similar, kindly beams from its attendants.

For most, all smacked of a usual day. The mere meeting of expectations, no matter how relatively low or high, ever fails to jolt a steady heartbeat into the white-capped waters of exhilaration.

For Debbie Swanson and family, though, the morning's incontrovertible beauty shone as brightly forth from their minds as the fluorescent overhead lights did upon the miniature golden bell and its accompanying black marble plaque hanging where what had just yesterday been bare, white wall.

The Swansons donated the "Survivor's Bell," as it and ringers of its ilk are known in cancer hospitals throughout the nation, to FMDH in honor of Mrs. Swanson's completion of six months' radiation treatment.

"There was no bell in Glasgow," said Swanson's daughter, Sarah Swanson-Partridge, "so Mom thought she'd donate one."

Mrs. Swanson finished chemotherapy three weeks ago, and returned to the hospital on what had been her weekly treatment day to sound the joyous death knell on her battle.

"Not that we don't like seeing you every Wednesday," said Swanson-Partridge to the nurses, "but we're glad to be done."

The bell, hand-crafted by Harvey and Karen Wall of Baker's Jewelry, will be rung by each patient upon his or her completion of treatment. The bell may be small, but its presence in the second floor waiting room is noted as its echoing peal uplifts the collective heart and mind of all within earshot.

"I've been to bellringing parties in Billings," said Swanson-Partridge. "They're a big deal. All the staff comes, people bring balloons." No balloons bounced off the ceiling that morning - but what the room lacked in helium, it made up for in the unadulterated buoyancy of a life prolonged.

"Hopefully when others do it, all the patients will come out," said Swanson.

The family - mother, daughter, father - posed for pictures in front of the plaque, which is engraved with the poem:

"Ring this bell,

Three times well,

Its toll to clearly say,

'My treatment's done,

This course is run,

And I am on my way!'"

"On behalf of the hospital," said Matt Stevenson, the hospital's Marketing Director, "thank you, Mrs. Swanson, for your generosity. And congratulations."

"Thank you," said Swanson. Smiling, she turned and strode towards the door.