He came near...

Mama & Nellie Rose

THE LULU CHRONICLES

If you’re a regular visitor to this blog, I apologize for my absence last week. My mom is sick. Her cancer has returned after five years clean. So, I hopped in the car and traveled the twelve hours to her doorstep. Her surgery is Thursday. You probably won’t hear from me then either. Life and love once again intervene.

Last Thursday I was sitting outside a PET scan room. Mom’s doctor asked me to be close by just in case she needed me. On the thick, heavy door to the procedure room hung a warning sign: Caution! Radioactive Materials. Every so often I could hear a low, mechanical hum, as another sign would light up over the door warning whomever, I suppose me, not to enter.

 I don’t think any 85-year-old great-grandmother should have to go through this, do you? Mom’s been through enough. She lost her own mother as a young child, a baby sister at the age of one, and out of eight siblings she is the only left on this earth.  Isn’t this enough loss and sadness for one person? She survived the Great Depression and has lived through every war and scrimmage our country has been involved in since WWII. Let her be! She should be sitting in a rocking chair cuddling Nellie Rose, her two-month old great-granddaughter. She should be working with her roses in the back yard, putzing in her kitchen and baking yet another lemon pie or a mess of beans. What she should not be doing right now is lying on her back while some toxic radioactive materials scan her body looking for cancerous intruders. Enough is enough.

As I sat in the small cluster of waiting room chairs, I suddenly felt a Presence. He came near and I was no longer alone.  I knew at once that the thick door in front of me and the flashing sign above were no match for Him. Beyond the door my mama laid on a narrow scan bed with her head wedged and her arms secured around her body by a large Velcro belt. But it no longer mattered. He came near. He would take it from here.

Grace and mercy is His to give. Comfort and peace are held in each Holy Hand. So, I waited outside the thick door knowing all would be well… even if my mama wasn’t. He came near… to stay.

deb