(thing) by Lometa Fri Oct 20 2000 at 17:30:28

Dad called yeterday and told me my Uncle Edward passed away in his sleep. He said it was time to go had a bowl of ice cream and some heart medication then died peacefully in his sleep. Dad said we're to have dinner Sunday night with my cousin Farissa and her husband Floyd. They're in Phoenix for the rodeo now I'm not sure they may go back to Texas for Uncle Edward's funeral on Saturday at Kempner Baptist Chruch in Lampassass. Dad also said they had found basal cell carcinoma near the right corner of his eye. A small spot he's having removed and then some reconstructive surgery ....maybe.

I had my dental checkup yesterday with Dr. Mackintossh, we all call him Dr. Mac for short. A good Christian man a lot like Mr. Rogers is his manners and ways. I met him as a result of my illness and common friends we share. He's in his 70's and just crazy about Volkswagons. On my first visit he took me out back to show me the newest edition of the VW that he had ordered and built from a kit. A real one!! Before Volkwagon even released them! He has a room FULL of Volkswagons memoriabilia he collects and models he has built. We talked about when the Lord came into our lives and when we said goodbye he gave me a hug and his personal phone number to keep in touch saying he would remember me in his prayers. There was great comfort for me in that simple act. He has won several awards for ballroom dancing at the Westward Look Resort. A rich and full life he lives. His wife has suffered from Alziemer's for the past 26 years and Dr. Mac took care of her as long as he possibly could, even going so far as to build a room at his office where he could care for her. She's in a nursing home now where she sits all day with her special dolly on her lap. Yesterday, he came to the door and rushed out as I pulled in to park all excited to tell me she spoke to him last Saturday for the first time in three years! He said, I reached in her mouth to pull her partial plate out and she said, Don't do that! schrunching up his face like she must have all angry-like. Through my illness we also share a common friend, Juanell. She was the one who, when it was time for me to begin physical rehab took me up to the gym and got me enrolled. Now her brain lesions are back and the doctor says she has 6 months at the most to live.

I'll never forget the first one to go....that was John. We were in the hospital together, the staff had left us alone in a room to watch a video about brain surgery(a transphenoidectomy) .......it was all so very frightening and we were so alone....he reached over and gently held my hand as we watched. A few days later John suffered a stroke and they wheeled him by me in a wheelchair his face all bloated red and staring off into the nowhere his mind had gone. I tried to say hello, but the nurse kept going. I was shocked and so painfully sad to know he didn't recognize me anymore.

I watch them all go one by one and wonder why I am so spared and they are not. Sometimes all I can express is grief and despair and wonder how these encounters are divine appointments?

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We know that all things work together for good to those who are called asccording to his purpose.
- Romans 8:28 (NRSV)

Devotion

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