Cobblestones....

Someone was talking about battles today. About being kind to others because you never know what battles they may be fighting. I have thought about that all day because it struck a chord with me.

And now, of course, I'm going to tell you why....

It was more than a decade ago, in the early spring. My stepmother was concerned about my father and wanted me to come take a look at him. Being both a dutiful daughter, and a concerned nurse, I went on my lunch break.

Daddy was sitting upright on the couch, with his arms spread across the back of the couch, on each side. I gasped: it was typical behavior of someone who cannot get enough air. Someone in congestive heart failure.

After talking to him, and listening to his lung and heart sounds, I called his physician. I ignored his “brush off” and asked him point blank: “are you going to admit him to the hospital, or do I need to call someone else?” He admitted him.

Three days later, not responding to treatment, Daddy coded and ended up in ICU. I spent every waking hour with him. Each day, as I went to see him, I walked across the cobblestones in front of the hospital.

And, when Daddy died, I went back to work at that very same hospital. Each morning, as I walked into the hospital to go to work, I saw those same cobblestones. And each day, I had the same thought: this is the last place where Daddy was ever outside. I wheeled him, in a wheelchair, over those cobblestones and into the hospital.

He didn't come out alive. Losing him was unbearable and walking over those cobblestones was part of my healing, I guess....

One day, as I walked over them, thinking about Daddy, a man I know interrupted my thoughts with a supposedly cheery greeting: “Hey, smile! Nothing's THAT bad!!” And he kept walking. So did I: kept walking and trying not to cry.

I know he didn't intend any meanness by his comment. He was merely reacting to the fact that I was not smiling, I'm sure.

“Each of us is fighting our own battle......” Those words rang so true this morning.

And about a week later, I happened to see that man again, inside the hospital, in the hallway. I decided to tell him why I wasn't smiling that day. I shared my story with him, and when he started to apologize, I waved him off. No need to apologize, just understand:

Everyone is fighting some sort of battle, at one time or another.....