Serendipity

Yesterday  I went to St Anne's Hospital to begin my new adventure as a hospital volunteer.  I have already been to orientation, gotten my TB test, and purchased a red smock.  I went to Kohl's to buy a black shirt to wear under the smock and so I was ready.

I am going to be working at the Women's Health Center where women come for mammograms.  I picked this place because that is where I always go for mammograms and I have always loved the experience of it.  So, I went yesterday to shadow an experienced volunteer and Friday I begin on my own.  I will be working every Friday morning from 8 to noon.

The big surprise - the serendipitous surprise - was that I knew the experienced volunteer.  It was Phyllis who was a former member of my church who I knew peripherally because she remained friends with many of the women of Karl Road.  And I knew her to be a really nice and kind person.

So, I learned that women come here for several reasons: mammograms, diagnostics, biopsys and bone density tests.  There are different questions that you ask:  did you use deodorant (mammogerams) or are you wearing metal?  (bone density.)  I learned where to file the different papers that they were given.  And how to make coffee and fill the water and where to put the dirty robes and where to restock robes.  And I walked over 5000 steps in three hours.  This was all good.

But the greatest gift was the down time we had between patients.  Phyllis - like me - is a widow.  Her husband died a year ago.  And we talked about all the issues that have come up.  About how much harder this is than we imagined, about how the tears continue long after his passing, about how difficult it is to get rid of clothes and pictures and all kinds of sentimental and practical items.  It was good to just share with someone who is on the journey that I am walking.

So, I look forward to Friday and doing this task by myself but I know I was blessed yesterday to be mentored and companioned by Phyllis.  God continues to give me the people that I need as I walk this lonely path.

Here is a blessing by Maxine Shonk

May God bless you on ordinary days,
gracing you with an awareness of the beauty of everyday, the comfort of the commonplace, and the awe of life as usual.
May you hear the invitation to new excitement over the constancy of God's care for you and to profound thanksgiving for God's faithful presence.
May the God of ordinary days, your COMPANION  God, bless you.