One of the deacons in my church prefaced his offertory prayer this past Sunday with a pray of another kind, not one having to do with the offering itself but nonetheless a most appropriate prayer for the hour in which we Americans find ourselves once again. After mentioning the recent bad news about one person …
“Do you know the code to get out?” she asked me. “Indeed, I do,” I told her. “Good, I’ll walk out with you.” Like me, she had been visiting someone in the long-term care facility. “Do you have a friend or relative here?” I asked as we stepped down the stairs. “An old friend,” she …
His eyes darted first to his right, then to his left, like he was looking for an exit that didn’t exist. I could feel his agitation, reminding me of when as a boy, I had stopped at Swain’s pet shop on the way home from school, and gazing at the pitiful, caged raccoon scratching to …
Tears suddenly welled up in her eyes as she paused in mid-sentence, changing the subject of our conversation completely. “I would talk to my brother, two to three times a week,” she abruptly said, slowing her speech, glancing away with a far-away look in her eyes. “I miss him so much. I’ll hear a voice …
“David! What are you doing here?” My ninety-five-year-old mother was shocked when I appeared unexpectedly at her door. I had driven from Altus, Oklahoma to Lubbock, Texas to visit her but had deliberately not told her I was coming. Walking down the hall of the long-term care facility where she is a resident, I called …