I have been taking care of Ron's aging aunt.....a lot of things have come to light for me since this started...the day after Christmas.....For one thing, you never know who will be the one who carries you through ahard time.... there are some very unlikely people out there
This lady is 84....she has dedicated her life to the ministry of Christ since she was a young girl. She is of the Methodist religion and supported herself on the mission field for 30 or so years in India....a few months ago I picked her up from the airport after a visit to the land that is her home. She has wanted to go back every few months to see the people and I think just live life in a simpler way. She doesn't have much in the way of material things. A few pieces of furniture and a few pair of pants and a shirt or two and a coat. She has carried her small suitcase back and forth across the ocean and never worried about the things that I would if it were me. She volunteers in her church and the community. Always known wherever she goes. No strangers in her life, just new friends. Her eyes sparkle with some new corny joke she has heard and she laughs a little too loud sometimes and talks that way too...especially if she has not put the hearing aids on. I try to tell her she needs them but doesn't matter half the time she won't wear them.....Over the years she helped me with my boys....at times for kids all that is needed is an adult presence and she certainly could do that....she let them drive her car ....too early but you couldn't tell her that.....they played chess with her and cards....She took them to the Mexican Restaurant not too far from here......all of that made her feel needed.....She says there isn't many people who need an 84 yr old but it doesn't seem to matter really.....she continues to do and go with friends and continues to make new ones all of the time.....
She is lying in a bed in ICU.....heart failure they say....she is having a hard time breathing and dragging the energy to feed herself, so when I am there, I make her eat.....I tell her that I need her to move and keep trying because I want her to be able to help herself when she leaves this hospital....she shakes her head and says yes....but "i am so TIRED" ....I know that she is..................People come and go in and out of her room......sometimes speaking sometimes not.....I look at her as she sleeps and wonder what the future holds for her.......Her friends come by to speak...wearing her out after so many show up to speak to her....I try to get them to understand that she is exhausted lifting a fork to her mouth...but they want her to be that positive lady that smiles and tells them how much God has done for her.....She may leave this earth in the next week...or the next year....or ten years....but the soul of a person is in our hearts...and they never really leave.....they are always with us....the piece of them that they give to us bad or good lies forever in our hearts contributing to the here and now.....
At Thanksgiving on our way home...we talked of life and love and my boys and God.....She has always accepted me.....during a time that I was sooo down she gave me time.....one of the most valuable things a person can give....she stayed with my children and nurtured them when I could not.....she asked for nothing in return........God is good she says....I listen and wonder if I still believe that.....She says if we don't question Him and talk to Him we will never grow and understand who He is......that is good because for the last 5 yrs I have been growing..........
I have rambled....all over the place...this is me...talking.....PG
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