Waiting

About eleven years ago a woman I grew up with had a stroke.  When it happened, the prognosis was not good, but against the odds, she woke up and went home.  She had another baby.  She went back to work.  She saw her oldest graduate from high school.  She did all the things a mom of four does every day for eleven years.  All the big stuff, all the little, every day stuff.

Then, last week, she went in for a routine brain surgery to address an issue related to the stroke.  As my mom says, "We really shouldn't say any brain surgery is routine...".  The surgery went fine, but a waterfall of things happened afterwards, leaving her dependent on a ventilator.  

Her family is taking turns waiting at her side, while those of us who can't be there wait and pray far away.  I pray for a miracle.  I pray for comfort.  I pray she isn't suffering. I pray if she has to suffer it is so she will wake up. I pray for her kids and for all the "what ifs"  I pray for her parents, who wait so patiently, and for her siblings and extended family.

I've made an effort to make time to sit and pray, to think, to communicate with folks who are there and with folks who are far away, like me, and praying.  I spent time over the weekend going through the CD of family photos my mom gave me, looking for pictures of all of us as kids and smiling at all the happy memories.  There were lots of pictures, and lots of memories of things we didn't take pictures of.  Today, I spent some time playing from the hymnal our church used in high school for church and for choir--(My piano teacher would cringe...those flats and sharps are tricky to unpracticed hands). As I played, I  heard many voices in my memory. I could hear my friend take the high soprano, while I did my best to hit second and her sister sang alto. I could hear her laugh, and hear her tell me I could hit the higher soprano note, too. (And me laugh, "no").....I know that even if she leaves us now I will hear her voice again when we all reach heaven.

So for now we wait and pray and remember and hope.