Angels...

I lost another patient today. It is always hard for me. I have never gotten used to losing my patients. He was no longer my patient: he had been in the hospital and was discharged to a skilled nursing facility with hospice care. 

He was special to me. I know, all my patients are special to me but, he was different. He and his wife have known me since I was a little girl. They knew my parents, too. In fact, he and his wife were one of the two couples recruited to be youth group leaders for our junior high youth group at my church. 

My best friend and I wanted to be in the church youth group, too. We asked the high school group, all six of them, to include us in their activities. Not surprisingly, they laughed at us. So, we went to our parish priest and asked for permission to start our own group, just for junior high school students.

Thinking he could discourage us, he said “yes” but added caveats: we had to have not one but two adult couples to be our group leaders; we had to attend the worship service held each Sunday evening at 7, and we had to average at least 20 kids per meeting in order to be allowed to continue after our “trial period” of one month.

And, while the high school group got to use the basement “recreation room” in the Parish Hall, we were relegated to the kindergarten room, complete with little people furniture! 

Angels...

Well, not discouraged one iota, my friend and I proceeded to “invite” two of the most charismatic, outgoing, fun couples in our church to be our youth group leaders. We were too young and too enthusiastic to realize just how lucky we were that both couples agreed to be our leaders, including my patient and his wife.

This dear, sweet man who died today, and his lovely wife, were instrumental in getting quite a few of his junior high school ball players to join our group: he coached Little League and Babe Ruth League.

Before we were through, my girlfriend and I had found the group leaders, a generous “patron” who donated both a regulation pool table and a cool jukebox, and we averaged 40 to 50 kids a week at our meetings during our “trial period”. Not only did we get to continue our group, we got to use the basement and the high school kids, all 6 of them, got to use another classroom.

I don’t think we did anything that was particularly remarkable. I think our enthusiasm and our belief in ourselves served us well. A lot of that enthusiasm and drive to be successful came from those wonderful people who served as our leaders and guided us.

So, it was quite hard this morning, when his wife called me and gave me the news. I had lost touch with them in the last several years and I cannot believe that finding them again, and caring for them as their home health nurse, was some sort of coincidence.

Not at all.

For the last year, I have had the privilege of spending time with them, each week, caring for their wounds and getting close to them again. It is delightful to listen to their unique, Texas drawl as they share their thoughts with me. I always laughed when we were talking about something and he would start singing a song. He had a very nice voice and that, combined with the twinkle in his eye, made for an enchanting rendition of whatever he chose to sing.

And now he is gone. 

I am sad for his wife and son, and the rest of the family. And I feel sorry for myself, too. There are so few people left in my life who knew my parents, and they both knew them and liked them. And they treated me like the daughter they never had.

I was talking to a friend this morning, telling her of my sadness, and she reminded me that, just like my daddy, my patient is not gone. He is just on another plane…in another time and space. His work here was finished and he was needed elsewhere. I have to love him enough to let him go. And I realized, too, that I have been blessed by knowing him and finding him again, after so many years. 

And now, there’s another Angel in Heaven, watching over me…..