If you’ve been keeping up with the comments on the call-out for Friends & Family haiku, you might have seen this one I wrote about a very dear friend who dropped everything and drove straight to the hospital on the day I most needed her:

Phoned my friend in tears –

She ditched work so I could say

“Transplant,” face-to-face.

About Bernie, by Laura

Well, my friend wrote a haiku (her first haiku ever!) in response:

Friend phoned me in tears –

Her heart is broken but it’s

the best heart I know.

About Laura, by Bernie

As you can see, she’s the best BFF a girl could ask for. Excuse me, I just have a little something in my eye right now… 🥺

Anyway! I asked Bernie if I could include her haiku in this month’s zine and that made me think – are we missing a trick by not asking friends and family to write haiku about their loved ones with heart conditions? Wouldn’t it be interesting to hear the situation from the other side of the relationship?

So, if you have a heart condition and think a friend or relation might like to write a haiku on the topic, please refer them to this post before the month is out. A rare opportunity for those with fully functional hearts to appear in the zine, so make the most of it!