A Unique Day

Today was a unique day.  It started out fairly normal with lots of meetings in the morning for work, and then I went home for lunch.  I almost went to go pick up an absentee ballot to vote early, but then I decided not to and just went back to work.  As many workplaces are doing right now, I'm required to enter through only one door that enters the lobby and step up to the thermal camera to have my temperature read.

After I did that, I gave the receptionist the afternoon cursory nod and hello and was about to turn away when she says to me, "I need to get a hold of my boss.  I just got word that my grandson fell into a pond and drowned."  Well of course that brought me up short, so I paused to tell her I was sorry to hear that, and I asked if there was anything I could do to help.  By this time she was clearly distressed and simultaneously taking and making phone calls, so things were chaotic and confused.  From eavesdropping and observing, it appeared that what she needed was to be given a ride to her daughter's workplace, so I offered to give her a ride.

After some additional confusion and uncertainty, she took me up on my offer after making sure I could drive fast and we booked it out of there for a 15 minute drive to where her daughter was waiting.  What I could gather in the confusion was that her son was at the hospital crying as he waited for news from the doctors who were still doing CPR on his child.  She said her grandson was a year and a half old.  They just bought a new house a couple days before that.  I'm not exactly sure how the pond figured into all of that, but maybe it was related somehow.  She asked if I prayed, and I told her I did, and she asked me to pray.  I wasn't sure if she meant out loud while I was driving or just in general once I was done driving.  To me that seemed like one of those situations where mostly what you need is someone present rather than someone with the right words, so I concentrated on driving and hoped my presence was enough.  I did say a prayer for her and her family afterward once I was done driving.

An experience like that can tend to refocus things.  It took a little time to get back into the work groove after that, especially since my computer started behaving strangely.  If you have some loved ones close, hold them tight and be thankful.  And be kind to others.  We all have our unique COVID19 struggles to deal with, and other have some even bigger burdens on top of that.

One of my other friends from work was in a bad car accident about 3 weeks ago.  She's one of the sweetest and kindest people I know - definitely could be described as somebody's mother.  She and her husband both sustained serious injuries (broken leg(s), damaged liver, damaged spleen, etc), and their youngest son died in the crash.  That is what I call heartbreaking.

Those kinds of things highlight how little I know about how to  respond to medical and emotional emergencies.  I only know what someone mentioned in Bible study last night - "let love lead."

I was joking to one of my friends on facebook that all we need now is a freak snowstorm in December that drops about 6 feet of snow on us over the course of 2 days, and then the year will really feel complete.   Probably I shouldn't even think that - it might happen!