Monday, September 10, 2012

Dinner with a view

Having dinner at the home of June and Roger is always a good thing. The view is fantastic, the food is delicious and the company always interesting. Roger said his own grace and it was inspiring and sincere.

Last night was a wake up call for those of us in the latter years of life.
One of our friends is in poor health and this was her first outing in months.
She was in a wheel chair, since part of her foot had been amputated. She was not
in good spirits, and I accepted this as a challenge, to help her enjoy her evening.
This was not an easy task. She mentioned suicide. Since I had just attended a family funeral
of a cousin (by marriage) who had mentioned suicide quite often and was found dead in a bathtub,
(either overdosed or intentional), this upset me.
Perhaps it was just a dramatic comment to emphasize her discomfort. Still I felt the need to point out
what she would leave behind if she took such a drastic step. 
Not being one to give up easily, I was able to help her relax and laugh at some of the humor being passed
around the room.
After a bit she seemed to enjoy her friends and dinner.
Her husband is very kind. He wheeled her to the bathroom, to the table and to the view.

All in all, I think she enjoyed her first outing and hopefully the next one will show a more positive
attitude.

I hugged Joe when we arrived home and decided I would always be kind to him and never argue etc.
Of course, this is unrealistic, but at that moment I was sincere.
I know we are fortunate to have a good marriage and be in relatively good health and pray that if and when things change, we will leave it in the hands of the Lord and accept whatever happens.

I'm getting way to serious. We actually had lots of laughs. I told the story of a man who was caught speeding by the State Patrol. He told the officer that his wife had cheated on him with a State Patrolman, and he thought he was chasing him to try to give her back.

4 comments:

  1. You are so saintly! It seems not very guest-like to mention suicide at a dinner. She must have been really down. If anyone could cheer someone up, it would be Blessed Martha, patroness of great hostesses (and guests, in this case.)

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  2. I burst out laughing when you said you would always be kind and never argue and how unrealistic that would be. I enjoyed your blog.

    Thanks, Bonnie

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