Rotors

The wind born from the helicopter's rotors amazed me--pure manmade power, and their sound deafening.  Emily and I stood fifty feet from the helicopter's landing in the hospital's parking lot as the dust swirled at our feet.  We finally could walk when the rotors slowed.  They were picking up a patient, and a chill ran through my spine.  Emily and I both thought of my friend's daughter; Emily mentioned it first.  "I bet it was scary for her to ride on that helicopter."

Little did I know that a friend's husband was on a helicopter life flight two hours earlier departing that very hospital.  He's 39 and had a heart attack--the father of two young girls.  I was stupified when I heard the news.  39!  How very fragile life is.  How very precious we should treat each moment.

Emily and I were visiting my neighbor's mother who just had her knee replaced.  Cyclamen and card in hand, we entered the hospital and rode the elevator to the sixth floor.  We found my neighbor and her mother in good spirits; her mother's surprise evident on her face.  I leaned down and kissed her, welcoming the embrace.  She's genuinely fond of me and often encourages me when I'm feeling not good enough.  "You are enough," she's told me on several occasions.  Perhaps I'm learning to believe her.

My neighbor took Emily to see the skyline visible from the sixth floor of the hospital, and that gave her Mom and me  a few mintues alone.  Somehow she always gives me advice, "Someone will see you for the beautiful treasure that you are."  I smiled and asked about her knee.  I'm very good at changing subjects, especially when the subject is me.  Her daughter came back and told me that one of the nurses pegged Emily for a dancer, "It's her posture."   She moves with grace, but I always thought it was my biased opiinion.

We left the hospital and returned home.  Little did I know that my other friend's husband was fighting clogged arteries at the same time.  When the phone call came I was in shock.  They, along with my neighbors, are one of the few married couples who accepts my divorced status--neither of them treats me like a potential adultress and will often ask for Emily to come play with the girls so I can catch a much needed nap when I'm not feeling well or when I need a break from the responsibility.  I'll be making homemade gravy and meatballs to take to them so she has an easy dinner to feed her girls.  I know her husband inisists on keeping things normal even though he is in the hospital. They expect him to recover, provided he changes many of his non-healthy habits.

He and my friend's mother both need prayers, so I would appreciate people keeping them in their thoughts.