The hospital “tower” stands silently above the dark city in the mist and shadows of very early morning. Upstairs, in a dark tower room, a man kneels at the feet of his wife, who is sleeping drugged in the hospital bed. The only sounds are the soft hum and click of monitors and pumps, an occasional muffled sound from down the hall, or perhaps the sound of a lone siren from a distant ambulance approaching the hospital.
As he gently rubs her feet, he begins to cry, not for himself, but for her. The pain, the loss, more pain. He begins to think about all the pain this woman has been through. A father who wasn’t there for her; with all babies combined: years of nausea and morning sickness, probably close to 100 hours of labor, including 30 with the first baby alone, countless sleepless nights while being fed, holding another frightened child who had a nightmare, lying down on your side of the bed. bed crying silently for a friend, pastor, or neighbor as she lifted them up in prayer, countless trips to the emergency room and doctor’s visits, rejection by a “best” friend when she had tried to help her, and deep pain when the The man who rubbed his feet was stupid and self-centered in the early years. The man used to joke with her when they just married her saying that he had married an angel; now he was really beginning to wonder. Through all of her pain, she had always been a true source of life to all who knew her, to all who prayed for her even now, always inspiring and comforting and giving everyone a glimpse of true heavenly beauty. When the man first married her, he fell in love with her smile, her soft curves and her wit, and he couldn’t believe how much he loved her. Now, in her dark room, it seemed that her love for her was much deeper, broader and from the heart, things that the man could not even comprehend some 37 years earlier. But right now, if she could do anything, ANYTHING, to ease her pain, he wouldn’t hesitate.
But when the morning light began to show around the edges of the window shade, HOPE began to fill her heart and even the room. She would soon be bringing her girlfriend back home and back to “life,” and she couldn’t wait. “Her graces from her are new every morning”!