God-incidence
Lia commented on my last post and it reminded me of something I meant to include, but forgot.
(This won’t be very well written.)
The day before my dad died, when I was in the airport about to get on a plane to Chicago, my grandmother called and told me my mom was following an ambulance to the VA Hospital, where they were taking my dad because he had taken a turn for the worse. She didn’t come right out and say “come to Augusta,” but she said something like “I think your mother needs you now.” And I felt awful and told her not to guilt me and don’t think I haven’t struggled with this – but I need to go on this trip. And she said, “Even if your daddy is dying?” And I snapped at her again about guilting me. She asked, “Well is there anything you want me to tell your mother?” And I was crying at that point and I said, “I don’t know. Just tell her I love her.” Then I hung up.
At that point I was crying too much to try to hide it, and I didn’t want to make a scene (which I probably already was doing, even though I was trying to hide behind an elevator shaft). It just so happened that there was one of those “interfaith chapels” right near where I was standing – near the escalators coming into Terminal E. So I went in there. Basically it was just a little room with some chairs and a table with a Bible and some other various religious accoutrements. I called Jenny and Rusty to tell them both what was going on, and by that point I was just bawling. I couldn’t stop. A few other people had come into the room and I was embarrassed, so I just stayed facing the wall. They eventually left.
When I was on the phone with Rusty, I felt a hand on my knee. I turned around and there was a woman kneeling on the floor by my chair and she said, “I’m a hospice chaplain. It sounds like you need some help.” I told Rusty I’d call him back and hung up. The hospice chaplain spoke with me for several minutes and I don’t remember all of what she said, but she was very comforting and just wonderful. She said she had just happened to be walking by and heard me crying. After a few minutes she hugged me and said good luck and walked out.
When I told Lia about this when we met for dinner a few months ago, she said, “That’s what we call a God-incidence – instead of a coincidence.”
Definitely appropriate.
I love the serendipity of life!
Amber, I hate to admit this, but some of us are so far gone that we immediately think that was an angel or fairy (or another otherworldly spiritual being of some sort) that was sent directly to you, to calm your soul at that trying time.
Not that I would admit to believing anything that flakey, of course! :P