CityView Magazine

12 | April 2018 be ledgered accurately. I was inexpressibly moved by the love showered upon me by my peers, from their parents, even from their children. A 12-year-old girl texted me Bible verses, told me she loved me and wrote that she knew I would be all right. A calloused-handed 70-something businessman le me a voicemail saying that he loved me and that he would pray for me, even though he felt sure his prayer ranked low on the purity meter. A hunting buddy's son met me in the imaging lab where he worked and allowed me to cry on his shoulder in the darkest time of the experience. Love is such a healer. Love is priceless in value and beyond purchase. People suffer illnesses every day. My neighbors in the hospital rooms around me were either working to get home quickly or wondering if ever they would go home. I did not know the name of the woman in the room on the other side of the nurse's station. I knew that if she went home, she would not stay there long. Her time here was nearly over. Still, she wanted to be a part of the laughter. She wanted to harass me as I lapped her in the racetrack that was our hallway. She wanted me to cast a sardonic quip when I did lap her over and over. She wanted to be a part of life and laughter, even as she gasped for a lung full of oxygen. On the Tuesday that my chest tube was extracted, my suture knotted off, my x-ray completed and my parting instructions delivered, my last act was to walk to her room in my real clothes to say goodbye. She was asleep in the chair. She was so frail – so bruised – and shivering. I took her hand and held it until she awakened with a start. I said, "I am leaving." She said, "Wonderful." I said, "You are cold." She shivered again. I took the blanket off her bed and wrapped it around her chest and shoulders. I leaned in to kiss her cheek between her oxygen lines. "I will be thinking of you," I said. From deep in her faded eyes, she whispered, "I will be thinking of you too." I am thinking of her still this night. And it makes me weep. I loved very much the guy who wheeled me to the car. Our skins looked different in hue. Our shapes were different. He was going bass fishing when he got off and I was his last duty of the day. I was going home to hold my children. We talked much about fishing. About fishing with children. About spending time doing simple things with people we loved. About how God is so much closer during times of simplicity. When my wife drove into the circle, I stood up from the chair in which he had wheeled me. We embraced and we assured each other that God was close and that God was good. He hugged my wife and told her to take care of me. He called me "a good man." I knew him for about eight minutes of my life. His name escapes me but I will never forget him. I will see him again. He will have a spinning rod with a pumpkinseed worm rigged Carolina-style. I will have a cane pole and a tube of crickets. I quivered under the weight of impending Death only to be returned to Life and to the love of my friends and family. I feel no unluckiness at having had my lung opened surgically. It was truly a blessing for me. Death chose someone else that day. ank God, as I wanted to see my sons harvest their first turkeys, I wanted to hold my daughter's arm as we walk down her aisle and I wanted to continue to waste money on term life insurance. All this will end. What waits beyond? I believe Patrick Swayze when he tells Demi Moore that the love is what you take with you. Love, and maybe a tube of crickets. Tickets at: CFRT.ORG or 910-323-4233 It's mirthful, modern, and contemporary, yet steeped in the Austen classic you love. Sense & Sensibility_Shadowbox.indd 1 3/1/18 10:11 PM Auto. Home. Life. Retirement. They all matter, so wrap them all in a blanket of Nationwide® protection. We put members first, because we don't have shareholders. SM Join the Nation® that knows what's important. Combine your policies and save up to 25% Not all Nationwide affiliated companies are mutual companies and not all Nationwide members are insured by a mutual company. Nationwide, the Not all Nationwide affiliated companies are mutual companies and not all Nationwide members are insured by a mutual company. Nationwide, the Not all Nationwide affiliated companies are mutual companies and not all Nationwide members are insured by a mutual company. Nationwide, the Nationwide N and Eagle Join the Nation, What's precious to you is precious to us and We put members first because we don't have shareholders are Nationwide N and Eagle Join the Nation, What's precious to you is precious to us and We put members first because we don't have shareholders are service marks of Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company. © 2014 Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company. NPR-0718AO 8/14) service marks of Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company. © 2014 Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company. NPR-0718AO.2 (8/14) service marks of Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company. © 2014 Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company. NPR-0718AO.2 (8/14) worthw@nationwide.com Phone: (910)488-5056 WALKER WORTH AGENCY Walker Y Worth, III What's precious to you is precious to us. SM Auto. Home. Life. Retirement. They all matter, so wrap them all in a blanket of Nationwide ® protection. We put members first, because we don't have shareholders. SM Join the Nation ® that knows what's important. Combine your policies and save up to 25% Walker Y Worth, III WALKER WORTH AGENCY Phone: (910)488-5056 worthw@nationwide.com Not all Nationwide affiliated companies are mutual companies and not all Nationwide members are insured by a mutual affiffiliated company. Nationwide, the Nationwide N and Eagle Join the Nation, What's precious to you is precious to us and We put members fifirst because we don't have shareholders are service marks of Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company. © 2014 Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company. NPR-0718AO.2 (8/14)

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