Need a Get Well Soon Gift? Start Here.
In this edition of The Gift, we talk about the best way to approach get well soon gifts. Plus: the best wrapping paper and a set of gorgeous Japanese watercolors.
In 2023, doctors discovered a brain tumor the size of a small plum on my right frontal lobe. One week after my MRI, I went in for a craniotomy and spent several weeks in a combination of the regular hospital and an inpatient rehab hospital. The days bled together, and I missed seeing my husband and daughter. Therapists and doctors popped in and out every couple of hours. I worked on walking backwards, piling cones quickly in various patterns, and executive functioning skill-building. (To be fair, prioritizing tasks and deadlines thwarted me even before my surgery. I’m a journalist, after all.) And I ate a lot of mediocre hospital food.
I was deeply grateful to be there, after a surgery that couldn’t have gone better, building my life back. But in the first couple of days after my surgery, I had an insatiable craving for Levain cookies. It sounds silly, but one of the hardest afternoons I had over those many weeks was the day I tried to Grubhub them to myself, only to have them stopped at the entrance to the ICU (food and flowers are a no-no). I was looking to recreate the 3PM little treat I often gave myself in the middle of a long work day — trying to feel normal amid uncertainty about my recovery. The cookies were literally out of reach.
Here’s the thing: Before I went into the hospital, I had no idea that’s what I would have wanted. My colleagues created a thoughtful spreadsheet of gift ideas for me (the most Wirecutter-y way to show love) — Levain cookies were, of course, not on it. Because we don’t always know what we’ll want or need when we’re out of commission until it happens. So my advice to anyone searching for a gift for a loved one who is on the road to getting well is to just ask: “What’s something that would make your life better right now?”
For me, that was a chunky cookie. For others, it’s an upgrade-worthy pair of sweatpants or an extra-long charging cord. (Why are all hospital outlets so far from the beds?) But if you ask, and someone truly doesn’t know or isn’t able to answer, here are a few places to start:
