Do you remember
Days of Our Lives, or
As the World Turns? My mother never watched soap operas but my mother had a sweet helper who would come every week or every other week and she would watch the then black and white soap operas while she worked,...I remember the dramatic music and the world turning in black and white on the t.v. screen on the kitchen porch where our yellow breakfast table was.
Sometimes our lives resemble the ups and downs of those dramas (in a way) don't they?
Me? When I receive bad news about a beloved family member I'm a lot like a scuba diver. I come up out of the water and receive the news and then...
bubble, bubble, bubble I go back down with my goggles and fins to my prayer chamber of sorts. I can carry my prayer chamber around like an oxygen tank too. Just praying and doing the next thing...Just praying and doing the next thing. ....Sometimes walking and treading in prayers...I may be at the store, but I hope to be the graceful swan whose little feet are treading like mad under the water as Mrs. Dunwoody's book describes. ...But I tread in prayers.
This time it is my Uncle Bennie. Please pray for Uncle Bennie, it's been up and down, up and down. One negligent thing happening to him in the hospitals after another.
He's 86 years old and underwent triple bypass heart surgery. He's a fighter. He's also a survivor of prostate cancer.
The cardiologist and surgery team did a wonderful job, they studied the case and conferred 101%. He came through beautifully... But then there was the nurse who punished him because he argued with her on the ice cream type of thing she was trying to force feed him. She then gave him mega doses of morphine which damaged his kidneys etc. There was also a younger doctor who came in and spoke things to the effect of to his daughter such as...
Why don't you just let him die peacefully...This doctor said this in front of my uncle! Very dark! I will not expound. But his previous doctor strongly disagreed with that. Oh wow. He said...
No! Bennie is a fighter!
My uncle studied to become a vet for animals, long story, things happen and evolve. He would have been an outstanding vet by the way. It's just life happened. The short story is he knows a bit on medicine, he also had every right to question that nurse. We all do, do we not?
He finally strengthened after a tracheotomy and everything else through many, many prayers storming Heaven. He was transferred to another facility hospital where he was improving daily. ...Until the nurse left him in his waste. All day. He had some sores back there where the previous hospital did not clean him properly. Infection entered his bloodstream and he was sent back to the original hospital the next day. The nurse that had left him was found sleeping in the hallway. Picture taken.
He's not doing well and is tempted to give up. Fluids building in lungs and if you are a nurse, doctor or have had a loved one in this position you know what all this entails for that poor person.
Today it's a dire situation.
This affects a lot of things. My mother is 88 and of course, it upsets her, so our family (I'm an only child) has to keep her up and lifted too. She loves the Lord but becomes upset easily when things seem dire.
I'm sorry to have been away. I'm just going to post this and a couple of other things, but please know I've been up and down and around and around in my prayers. I just don't have a lot of mental energy to spare these days.
I love and appreciate all of you and covet, covet, covet your prayers. Ya know, at the age of 57 things are already quite crazy and we fight for our youth and desire to age gracefully with the reputation of being that beautiful person inside and out that our parents taught us to be and it seems it's always something to bring us to our knees. Maybe that makes true beauty? A softness? Perhaps it's the school of sorrow coupled with the companionship of Brokeness? Perhaps the broken pieces come together much like a heavenly tiffany lamp? (I remember hearing or reading the tiffany lamp analogy and liked it.)
Many may never understand, we'll have to accept that, sad but true, but Oh Lord help me to be that uplifting one, never a downer person. Oh God help me to be a Life-giver! When I am weak, He is strong.
Here's a photo of Uncle Bennie holding me one Easter morning when I was little. His favorite nurse at the hospital is a fellow Italian male nurse who cares for him in the night hours. Today will be rather telling. Please pray for my Uncle Bennie. He is the only uncle I have, things have been distanced for the past years, he has his hands full with his adult kids but he always manages to call my mother when he thinks we're in danger of a flood or anything of the sort. He's a very sweet person. Very sweet.
Here is a shot from one evening here...It's very representative of my life these days. My grown daughters living their lives. They are a great help with support for my mom and others too. This was one of the first evenings in this journey of Uncle Bennie.
Janie is in the distance practicing her golf swing. *gentle smiles*. No, I don't golf. She is learning this new sport little by little, me? The swing hurts my back after I had a bit of an injury a while back. That's okay. I'll watch her.
This evening I was walking and praying...walking and praying...
There is something peaceful as we walk and pray and watch our loved ones peacefully going through their lives...something comforting in that. Just like when they were little children, watching them play.
May we be like little children, resting in the Father. Easier said than done at times.
Just treading gently all the while hoping for understanding...but softly bombarding Heaven with prayers.
Peace to you all, Love to all, Amelia in the Forest
Photo by Robert Stock
P.S. I continue to care for our little Guiseppe, our sweet little elderly blind dog. Prior entries tell the tale on this little angel.
I also wanted to re-visit true religion, and what the Bible simply says. Another time?
EDIT Thursday. 10.11.18 1:28pm Yesterday we received word that Uncle Bennie is doing well on a respirator. The infection has not spread and is at bay. Please blogging friends, seen and unseen: Please continue your prayers. For me? I've noticed that in this over a month-long venue of wrestling prayers that the minute I think things are at a lull, my prayers go to a lull. I may still be praying consistently and sincerely but not quite so fervent. This time I will continue my fervent prayers even when things seem up'n adam. I ask that you too will friends. Thank you so much, everyone!
Mo-Mo, such a sweet little thing. She ministers to my heart.
Monkey. He mews so cute, he comes for comfort and to comfort...
Irene Dunne, one of my favorite actresses.
