Lela

Every single time I opened the door into the elderly care facility where Lela resided, oh such a tummy ache of dread. I might have to walk into the community room. I might have to cross in front of at least twenty folks in wheelchairs watching the news at noon. Sometimes it would be exercise time and everyone would be making "waves"or "wind" with their arms as the instructor lead them accompanied by the soothing sounds of nature on the stereo. Sometimes the kind lady with the guitar would come and play folk songs, happy tunes, with an encouraging, "Alright everyone, you know this one, "You are my sunshine..."Before I entered the room I would take a deep breath, curse quietly, hoping beyond hope that Lela would be stationed closest to the door. Why? Because for Pete's sake swooping her out of the room drew looks that I could hardly bear. Like the sorrowful gazes of a child who must watch from a window as friends and siblings rollick in play, their eyes were upon me. As Lela and I greeted each other with warm hello's and hugs--I'm just going to say it-- my heart felt a little rip. Even though I was there to read Christian scripture to a 95 year old hearing and visually impaired woman, I felt I was somehow responsible to care for them all. Or that WE were failing them all. Were it not for dear Lela.... As if I needed her to make me feel better, or more at ease, or any of that other nonsense. And yet she did. She smiled with her sea foam tinted watery eyes. She put her hand on my arm like that of the wispiest swift. She would gaze at me with such utter love and kindness that I wanted to scream out to the nurses walking by "I'm a fraud,I'm full of crap, what do I know about Jesus...sometimes I only believe in toasted marshmallow's!!! AHHHH!" Lela's relationship with God, I discovered, was quite real to her. When she would lie awake in her bed at night, when she would sit in her wheelchair hour upon hour, seemingly...endlessly...waiting..to be changed, bathed, wheeled to and from the community room, to the cafeteria for a breakfast of applesauce and oatmeal or a lunch of "zesty" macaroni and cheese, to her bed, to the bathroom..I thought "how, for the love of all that's green, does this woman endure?" She just believed she was going to meet him, the Lord that is, and when the world and its troubles got her down and blue, she would sing her hymns or silently repeat scraps of biblical wisdom. It was my duty, as a volunteer, to read from a book of daily bible sayings. Short, simple, and uplifting messages were what she was able to grasp and retain in her "moments of darkness." And so I would begin, when we were securely established in the lounge, (Oy Vey), the shouting of the bible. Almost nestled directly into her ear so that she might hear me (she usually smelled a tisch like burnt swiss cheese and salami that had been left out to long, but no matter, and I found it comforting) I vocally pressed on."SO DO NOT FEAR FOR I AM WITH YOU; DO NOT BE DISMAYED, FOR I AM YOUR GOD. I WILL STRENGTHEN YOU AND HELP YOU; I WILL UPHOLD YOU WITH MY RIGHT HAND!!" On many of my visits there would be a very special older couple who would be sharing the lounge with us. They were visiting, what I believe to be the man's mother, and typically had their twin pugs in tow. I will refer to them as The Mr. and Mrs. Crabby Crabby Two by Fours. Woeful tidings to us if they were already established in chairs, with their coffee, paper, and bouts of family gossip. As they watched me roll Lela into the room there came the beginning of the wonderful eye rolls and mutterings. Mr. Crabby would snort out, "Well Goddammit, looks like we're in for another SERMON." Lela could not hear these remarks thankfully, but I made certain to practice my--instant pulverization and death by gamma ray lightning rod volcanic acid glares-- in their direction. As I settled Lela and I into our respective corner of the room I thought, "Alright this one's a shout out just for you Crabby's.!" And here we gooooo "WEEPING MAY ENDURE FOR A NIGHT, BUT REJOICING COMES IN THE MORNING!!! It was all I could do to grip back the wildcat that desired to swipe with extended claws, especially when one of the crusty pugs attempted to climb on Lela's wheelchair foot rests. What the bloody hell did it matter to them after all! I wasn't offering up mini baptisms in the bathroom or handing out iced sugar cookies in the shape of the baby Jesus. And then....and then, I would focus on Lela and it just.. shut...me..down. And the story is, is that I have never before or since witnessed pure grace in action, with such consistency, and over the course of two years. Without the ability to study what had been her life's passion.With the clear awareness that she was in fact disappearing from us, she spent her time preparing for her next life. She slept peacefully at all, because the pictures that appeared in her minds eye were promises fulfilled. She saw her "True Father" and her "True home." A daydream meaning a night dream meaning a ubiquitous vision, meaning a tangible belief. And even if I had my own doubts, running the gamut from the afterlife to the present life to how to operate certain wine openers, I did not doubt her. And really, now, if I find myself in the grocery store, looking at selections of peanut butter, and a particularly ostentatious family cuts in front of me, knocks my bag down whilst a visibly irritated child boldly screeches, "I am not gonna EAT THE CRUNCHY KIND IF YOU BUY IT!!", I suck it in, a lot. Instead of saying.... oh so many things really, I think of Lela. And yes, I think, I can keep her close, I can gently hold this.