For just the second or third time in all these years, a personal response to one of my stories moved me to get permission to use it in place of my own writing.

Pam responded to my last piece, “Where Could We Go But To The Lord” with the following story. I?ve included her web site and e-mail address so you can respond directly to her and visit her site.

This is a story I wrote about the 12 days I spent in the hospital after my husband was thrown from a horse and had a severe head injury. We are home now and he is slowly recuperating.

THE WAITING ROOM

It was late at night when I arrived. All was quiet as I entered the room, except for the soft sound of the voice of a lady leaning against the wall talking on the telephone. The tone of her voice was somber.

Some of the chairs in the room were empty. It certainly wasn’t the time of night that you would expect a lot of people to be around the place. There were several benches and couches being occupied by people who were asleep. Some of them had pillows and were covered with white cotton blankets.

On one side of the room there was a whole group of people sleeping. Their closeness and the fact that there were a couple of children caused me to assume that they were probably a family.

Across from them I saw an attractive woman with long dark hair. She sat staring at nothing in particular. Her eyes were red and puffy as if she had been crying.

Over by the window sat an older woman. She seemed to be accustomed to her surroundings and I thought that she had probably been here before.

When I first came into the room, it never entered my mind that I would actually know any of these people. I didn’t think I’d be there that long, but I was wrong. Little did I know that I would be spending over a week in and around this very room, and it wasn’t long before I became friends with many of them because we all spent long hours together. We had a common bond that caused us, complete strangers, to suddenly become friends. This bond or connection with each other was due to the fact that we were all in the Intensive Care Waiting Room of a hospital. As time went by, some of us shared what happened and why we were there. We talked, listened, encouraged, and even cried together.

It wasn’t long before I realized my own situation wasn’t as bad as many others who were there. My own problems weighed less and less in light of some who had such heavy burdens to bear as they told me their stories.

Annette was the lady who was on the phone and she had been in the waiting room for four weeks. Her father was in a motorcycle accident and still had a long road of recovery ahead of him.

Kathy, the attractive young woman with long, dark hair was there because her husband had essentially drowned and been revived. He was on a respirator and had pneumonia now. They weren’t sure if he would survive and Kathy was concerned about what to tell her three small children. If he did live, there were many questions as to how much permanent damage there might be to his brain. Kathy found a Gideon Bible and we read it together.

There was Margaret who had rented a room in town because her son had been burned in a car explosion and he had been there for seven weeks. She came every day to see him and spent as much time as she was permitted in the ICU with him.

I met Sarah who could only come on weekends because she had to work to support her family since her husband had been in the hospital for seven months now.

There was a family who had a newborn baby. He was only a few days old when suddenly he began to turn blue and was rushed by helicopter to this hospital as the family prayed they would get him here in time. After examination, the doctors discovered that he had a problem with his heart and they had to do surgery. The family was waiting just for the chance to touch and hold their tiny son once more, hoping that he would be all right.

As I had suspected, the older lady had been here before. She told me her husband had received a heart transplant years ago and was having a problem now that had the doctors in a dilemma. She was familiar with the ICU but that didn’t make it any easier. She told me the story of the transplant and how her husband lived all these years because someone had donated their heart. She had corresponded with the donor’s family and been able to thank them. They, in turn, expressed their need to know that their loved one who died in a car accident had given the gift of life to someone else.

Mary came in one night after her husband had a wreck but they found that there were worse concerns than a few broken bones. While x-rays and scans were done to find out how badly he was injured, the tests revealed a whole new set of problems that were unknown before this time. Several areas showed the probability of an advanced cancer and life suddenly turned upside down for them.

The family on the far side of the waiting room was very distraught over their teenaged son, Steve, who was badly hurt in a four-wheeler accident. His cousin had been killed in the same accident and now Steve was barely hanging on by a thread, yet his family waited for any little sign of consciousness from him. Not only did they have the pain and distress of the situation with Steve but they also had a funeral to arrange for his cousin who died. You could tell they were a close-knit family as they waited together. I found out later that the teen-aged boy with them was Steve’s best friend and he had refused to leave the hospital until Steve awakened.

I first met Steve’s mother when I found her with her face buried in her hands leaning against the wall outside the ICU. She was crying so hard that she was shaking all over. I found myself leaning against that wall with her and I just instinctively put my arms around her and joined her as she cried out to God in prayer for her son.

Later, I listened as this family talked about where Steve went to church and when he was baptized and I thought how comforting to know that no matter what happened, Steve was all right because he had trusted in His Lord and Savior.

Day after day the family continued to talk to Steve and watch him for any sign of recognition at all. One morning there was great excitement in the waiting room because Steve had moved his finger across his mother’s hand. What normally might mean nothing at all, in this case, became cause for great joy.

Another woman I met was Sue. Her husband died just two weeks earlier after a long and difficult illness and now her son suddenly had an accident that could possibly cause him to lose the vision in one eye.

Like me, some of my waiting room friends received good news that their loved one was well enough to go home. My heart ached for others, like John, who sat beside me one night, and told me that his father wasn’t going to make it.

People in the waiting room were kind and tried to help each other any way they could. I watched a young girl give up her place to sleep to a woman who had a leg that was injured, and one night Steve’s Dad brought us all pillows.

Each day we would stop in the hall when we saw one another and ask, “How is it going today?” We all waited expectantly for any glimmer of good news at all to share together.

Life is precarious and extremely uncertain. We never know what tomorrow might bring. Yet, we often argue over meaningless things and take those we love for granted. We are but one heartbeat or one breath away from eternity but we seem not to notice that very much until we enter such a place as the waiting room.

By
Pamela R. Blaine
© July 2003

http://members.aol.com/pamyblaine/PamyPlace.html

Send Pam an E-mail and let her know what you thought of her story.

email-Pamyblaine@aol.com

About Pam: My husband and I live in Missouri. We have 4 children and 4 grandchildren. I enjoy writing, music, and country living. I write “Pam’s Corner” for the local newspaper and contribute to several e-zines.

Now Available!!!!!
A new music CD, “I’ll Walk You Home” by Mike and Pam. The title song is about growing up with my childhood friend, Suzanne, who died with cancer. If you would like one, they are available by freewill donation. Send your address to: Pamyblaine@aol.com

More information as well as a clip from the CD is on my web page

PamyPlace
http://members.aol.com/pamyblaine/PamyPlace.html

SOME SELECTED RESPONSES TO 

“WHERE COULD WE GO BUT TO THE LORD”

– May our Father in Heaven, guide you and Pat and lead you to where you should be at this point in your lives. Somewhere good for Pat’s health and where you can both be happy witnessing for our Father. God bless you and walk with you each and every step of the way.

– Mom and I have been and will continue to pray! Of course our prayers are biased, we want you to stay here (in Sarasota) in a healthy house. But we do want what God wants, and that will be the best for both of you. How you both figure that out is the present dilemma. So, yes, we will continue to pray for clear, uncomplicated guidance.

I know you are continuing to trust and obey.

– Count on us to join the team of intercessors. Actually, we have been doing that for the past 13 months or so. I have no idea why God has put you and, especially Pat, through all this, but sense that when we have a chance to look back, with the perspective that the years bring, we will rejoice in God’s goodness.

That was our hope during the 13 months when we essentially lost three people we loved dearly, all family. That remains our hope with my disintegrating physical situation, and that is our only hope financially. I certainly do not want to complain because God has worked through our circumstances to help so many, but living by faith can wear a person out. Even though I believe that my faith is what it should be, and though I recognize that faith is in reality a gift from God anyway, I still struggle with anxiety at times.

There are days when I am on top of it and genuinely rejoicing in God’s mercy, grace and goodness. There are also, however, those days when I want to shout, “Why?” The only things I know to hang on to are His commands and the perspective I will have one day. On that day I am certain that I will look at all He has done and will rejoice. Because of that knowledge or certainty, I can honestly rejoice in the present.

Too many words, but know that we are praying much! May you sense His presence all around you as you wait and look for new and open doors.

– I’ll pray for you guys. Moving is rough. I’ve been there many times before. (My circumstances were not as drastic, but still needed a place. One time it came down to the last day because I had to move out by the following Saturday and had to tell my brother that day so he could plan on helping me the following Sat. It was noon and nowhere to go, broke down and was crying. Then he gave me an ad in the paper and the real estate agent was a doll. When I told him my problem, he said to come and he’d make sure he found me an apt. One of those apts. was where God had me go. So hang in there. He does have a place for you.

– Just read your piece about having to move. Maybe God wants you to stay in Florida, maybe He wants you to go to another state, not necessarily Ga, but, I will do my best to remember to lift you up until you get a clear answer from Him about where He wants you to be.

My wife has finally received her disability from S.S. It has been a Godsend. Thank you for remembering her. It is difficult when you have an ill spouse, especially when you are not in the best of health yourself. I was disabled in 1994, severe osteo-arthritis in my lower back, where the pelvis and sacroiliac join, so am not a candidate for surgery. Really hard for a truck driver. I had to leave it behind, but He has given me so much more in it’s place.

I met you online, and a lot of other good, God fearing people, something that would never have happened if I were still behind the wheel of a truck. It gave me an opportunity to get to know my wife and family better.

– You know that you can always count on our prayers! We will be praying continually until we hear from you that it has been answered.

– Thanks for all prayers. The Lord has promised to build me up here, and never uproot me again. Sometimes, the enemy comes in to threaten me, but I am casting off all fear, and believing that God is securing my home. Thanks for believing with me.

– I will definately lift your names up to our Heavenly Father, and if he leads you to Georgia I have a brother and his family who live in Powder Springs, Georgia. Your always in my thoughts and prayers. Thank you so much for the stories and inspiration that you send over the internet. May God bless and keep you.