A Son’s Love, Part I
“He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart, yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” Ecclesiastes 3:11
It is January 2010. My mother lived in Florida. We had drifted apart; we sometimes spoke over the phone. She had told me about her Pulmonary Fibrosis.
One day, a neighbor of my mother’s called me saying that she and other neighbors had been feeding my mother, and that she had become thin and fragile. I flew to Florida to investigate. It was true: My mother moved about her home dragging the long, clear hose connected to an oxygen concentrator. I asked how much longer she thought she would live. “A year,” she said, without hesitation.
My brother and I returned to bring her back to Michigan in May. We packed the few items she wanted to keep in a rental truck, and her Buick. My brother who lives in Oregon was openly concerned I could not take care of her properly. I offered to escort her to Oregon.
… I found a place for her to stay in Michigan. After visiting several nursing homes observing how the staff treated the residents, one stood out above the rest. The rooms were small; a few had a connecting door to a second room. The choice was rooms 44 and 45. They were very cozy with a TV in one room, viewed a short distance to the adjoining. Settled in, we sat facing one another closely; mother said: “I prayed for 30 years that we might become close again…finally, I gave up. But here you are.”
I was not a religious man, but I was moved by her straightforward comment. I realized my early retirement, rather than being a disappointment, was somehow arranged for this moment.
I was born for this.
Michael Calligan
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