Outliving Your Health

When You Outlive Your Health

The last time I saw Aunt Mildred, back in the fall, she was preparing to celebrate her 94^th Birthday, we picked her up at the hairdresser, picked up some dinner and went out to her Nephew’s home where she was living and had a lovely time. She could still dress herself, enjoy a good meal and direct the conversation. But Friday, Friday she was in a strange room being shared with a strange person, not able to get out of bed without a lot of assistance, her meals look like something you would feed a small baby, her eyes seemed at time to be somewhere else, in another world, in a place where none of us could go; she can’t have water, it goes down the wrong way, television means nothing and only the visit of someone like Carole and her other family stirs her heart and brings some joy and even that is brief, words that no doubt flow from her mind leave her lips, broken, missing, running together, and in such soft tones that only one very close can hear. Tears come softly to her eyes but came swiftly to mine and others.  They take good care of her by all that we could understand and know, but it is not home, it is not the place of her 94 years and will never be. Carole and her sister sung to her, we shared the Word of God, it pleased her and yet when I got down to pray for her she pulled me very close and said, “Ivan, ask Jesus to come and get me.”  Carole and I left with tears on our faces, hurt in our hearts, and prayers for the presence of God on our lips. I am thankful for places such as where she lives and it may be that I will spend my time in such a place, but I still hear the ringing of her voice as she said, “Ivan, ask Jesus to come and get me.” Ivan