Sunday Morning Serenity

Spending time with Mama during a difficult situation has made me acutely aware of something I’ve always known: When it comes to how we handle stress and pain, I am a turtle and Mama is a golden retriever. As much as I want to tuck into my shell and hide away in solitude until it’s all better, that’s how much Mama wants to reach out—and not just to get help but to give it—from her wheelchair, in her hospital footies.

I can—and have—gone through many a doctor’s appointment without talking to anybody except the doctors and nurses asking me questions. Last week, I took Mama for her surgical follow-up appointment, and I think we talked to everybody at St. Vincent’s—total strangers who weren’t approaching all the 82-year-old women in wheelchairs—just Mama. By the time her appointment was over, I looked at her and said, “I think you give off some sort of gamma ray that telegraphs, ‘Talk to me and tell me your problems.’”

The other day, she introduced me to one of her favorite physical therapists, who told me, “I’ve learned a lot about Miss Nannette.” And I said, “I’ll bet she’s learned even more about you.” He had to smile. He knew it was true. She’s already told me where he’s in school and when he graduates, and if she knows that, she also knows where he was born, where he went to high school, what his daddy does for a living, whether his mama’s a good cook, how many siblings he has and—of course—where he goes to church and if he sings in the choir.

After every ordeal she has ever been through, Mama always says, “I’ll be glad to get back in church.” And by "church," she doesn’t mean the brick building on Highway 25. She means her church family, which has always given her strength. She loves to surround herself with people who have been praying for her and who share her faith. Mama tells all the hospital staff who marvel at this little woman pushing through 140 steps with a fractured pelvis and a broken wrist that it’s “nothing in the world but prayer.”

The strength of her faith is inspiring. And I’m hoping she sheds a little golden retriever on this turtle while she recuperates.

[Image by Richard Rowe, taken many years ago but still one of my favorites.]

 

Comments

[Susan Ramey Cleveland]

Beautiful. Sending up a little prayer for your mom.

[Valerie Luesse]

Thank you, Susan!