I had been sick in bed in the dark and silence for over two months when I met Marie. This was my fourth visit to a doctor to find out what was wrong with me. She took care of my infusions. I would be in that chair with her for three to four hours several times a week. I got to know her a little and her robust gift for life. She listened to all my symptoms and tried to come up with some solution as to what it was that was keeping me stuck in bed every day. When the infusions were only helping when I was there, she encouraged me to go back to my doctor and get reassessed. She called me or my mother several times to see how I was doing. She and my mom researched so many things to determine if we could come up with an answer. She was determined to make me well again. I had been to a family practitioner (3 times), the Head and Neck Institute, a neurologist, the emergency room, a migraine specialist, infectious disease doctor and finally I got reassessed by my family practice doctor, who, after much discussion with the internist and the migraine specialist had me enter the hospital. I was there for a few days and they determined that I was in a state of migraines and they could not get them to stop. After two days the headache had subsided but I was still not feeling well. I was to have a spinal tap. Marie stopped in my room to check up on me and said she would be there when they did the spinal tap. During the spinal tap, she entered the room looked at my mother (who was covering her eyes at the time) asked her to leave the room that she would be with me and help me through it. She grabbed both my hands and had her face 6 to 8 inches away and encouraged me through the whole process. I couldn't have done it without her. She was my rock. Today I am slowly getting back to normal and will never forget how Marie gave me the courage to ask more questions and helped me through such a trying time.