Stardust Sijil Patel

EDITORS’ NOTE

Dear reader, Welcome to the 2021 edition of Connective Tissue, edited by Glennette Castillo and Jonathan Espenan. Centered on the theme of rekindling hope, this issue begins with a painting of a candle titled "Light Upon Light," by medical student (now physician) Sammar Ghannam. Already I am reminded of the great joy of working with medical trainees: Where I might see light upon darkness, Sammar sees light building and layering on light itself. A future radiologist, she will carry her vision into dark hospital offices, finding opportunities for hope and healing even in images of brokenness. In a sense, this is where we all are: As new hope emerges in the wake of a pandemic, we seek opportunities to make sense of a season of loss. Loss, and its ever-spreading effects on the health workers who are its steadfast witnesses, is represented here. "Maybe elsewhere his heart still beats," Stephanie Seale writes of a child killed by a gunshot wound. Holding an iPad for a father dying of COVID, internist Sadie Trammell Velásquez comes to embody his weeping daughter's touch "with tears streaming down" her own face. "I haven't been trained for this," thinks medical student Roshni Ray, as she encounters the self-annihilating grief and desperation of a refugee mother newly diagnosed with diabetes. None of us — physicians, nurses, citizens — was trained for this. And so often, no training is adequate for the jagged realities of particular loss, particular grief. Yet so often, in our lives as in these pages, we make do. Roshni finds the words to inspire her patient to seek treatment rather than accept death. Dr. Velásquez carries on. There is an "elsewhere" where hope remains. These pages document how the artists of our UT Health San Antonio community have sought, conveyed, and kindled hope. Their words and images show us how hope thrives everywhere, when we make our very selves into the home for it. "We are more elastic than we remember," Aarushi Aggarwal reminds us. And the issue ends with an image called "Lux Aeterna" — eternal light. Healing professionals have been so steadfast during these long months of COVID. We remain steadfast, as we have done for centuries. In our bodies, in the healing we offer to our patients, and in these words and images, hope is the eternal light.

Rachel Pearson, M.D., Ph.D. Faculty Advisor, Connective Tissue Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and the Medical Humanities Light Upon Light Acrylic on Canvas Sammar Ghannam

Student, Long School of Medicine, Class of 2021

This painting was inspired by the theme “Rekindling Hope.” One must go through a time of darkness in order to appreciate the light. In this painting, the viewer is able to feel the warmth and light of the candle and realize that hope and potential for healing exist even amidst darkness.