Young people, nursing homes...and going home

I really enjoy visiting folks.  I have some home Bible studies going which I thoroughly enjoy and although you wished nobody would go to the hospital, I hope I can bring a little cheer there as well.  Nursing homes and rehab facilities are part of my visits also and there are some pretty special things that happen along the way like the time I was leaving a nursing facility and this little sweetheart of a lady in a wheelchair sings the first line of “When we all get to heaven.”  Well, I picked up with the rest of it and we sang together the rest of the hymn.  The staff applauded us…which kind of embarrassed me a little.  I told one of the girls on staff they didn’t need to do that to which she replied, “Oh, we were just happy—that’s the first time she got every word right.”  J

So, it’s time for my visits and I thought why not ask the teens to join me?  So, our youth group came along and we went to one of our places with several of our East Side folks as residents…sister Hull (who babysat about half of the kids years ago); sister McGee (who asked if we were going to sing and she joined right in with us); sister Puckett.  We dropped in on the daddy of sister Snyder (wife of one of our elders) and said hello and to the roommate of sister Keith (who was in the hospital).

I was blessed to be with some of the best young people in the world.  We had a wonderful time.  Our teens were respectful; gracious; brought cards and gifts; the young brothers led singing and prayers…I was so delighted with our boys and girls and as a side note, they left the cell phones and I-phones and all in their pockets and focused 100% on the opportunity at hand…and a visit to another one of our aged sisters, in retrospect, was as perfect as could be.

Sister Mildred Carver is 90 years old and has taught the three year old class in Sunday School for 34 years.  Yes, you read that right…and was still in the class with our Emiline Hutson until about three weeks ago when she suffered a fall at home.  On Monday night, she was not doing real well and her two daughters (also East Side members) were in the hallway.  I knew something was up.

All of the youth went in the room with me.  I talked with sis. Carver and she looked around at the group and about 75% of the teens had been taught by sister Carver.  She nodded when I called out one of the boy’s names in that she remembered.  We had prayer and went on, hugging the daughters outside the door.

I can’t back up the following with scripture other than maybe a slight implication of 2 Timothy 4:7-8 as Paul was near the end of his life, but have you heard of situations when a person is in pretty grave condition and after a child finally arrives or a matter is finally addressed, they pass away from this life?  It’s like when that one thing happens, it’s time to leave this earth.

When sister Carver passed Tuesday, I wonder if seeing all those children she taught touched her heart to the point where she said within her heart, “Lord, I’ve done my job…and here they are serving…time for me to go home.”

Make you wonder...and it sure refreshes hope—it’s just something I was thinking about…from the Wildwood.