Awesome Women - #1, Part 2

Last Monday morning, I was in Dallas to wait with my friend Jo, who was having day surgery to have a lump removed from her breast. My daughter made the trip with me. She spent Sunday night with her room-mate from last year, and I spent the night at her room-mate's parents' house.

Due to locations and time frames, I found it worked best if I picked up Victoria before I went to the hospital, so this meant she had to get up before 9:00 a.m. on her first Monday after graduating from college. She did this without complaint. When we arrived at the hospital, we went to the waiting area for Day Surgery and I checked to see if Jo was in a room yet. The volunteer there told me she had not checked in yet. I found this strange, since she told me she had to be there at 6:00 a.m., and it was then about 10:00 a.m. Victoria and I went down and got some muffins and drinks and went back up to the waiting area. After a few minutes, I checked again, and was told Jo still had not checked in. Another person, with more information, overhead my inquiry, and told me Jo was in radiation and asked if we would like to go there. Since our purpose for being there was to be with Jo, of course we said yes. When we got to the desk at Radiology, the volunteer turned us over to the staff there. They told us to have a seat and they would let the staff know Jo's family was there. Victoria got a kick out of that, as we are very blonde, and Jo is very dark. She was wondering how we could explain the difference if anyone asked. I told her, we are family - we are sisters in Christ. Of course, she knew that and believed it, she just thought the staff might find it questionable if they saw us together.

When Jo came to the waiting area, we all sat down together, and I began reading to her from the Bible. About that time, one of her brothers arrived, and joined us. I asked Victoria to read her favorite Psalm, and then Jo asked her to read Psalm 91. This gave me a bit of a start, as this had been Karen's favorite passage, also. Jo had prayed for Karen over the months, but it was not the time to share with her that Karen was gone. So Victoria read Psalm 91, and then said she would like to share another Psalm that a friend had shared with her when she was going through some hard times. She read scripture and we prayed over Jo. Then, we went to the waiting area and my daughter and I met others of Jo's family. Victoria sat and visited with them, particularly Jo's mom, throughout the surgery. She was a big encouragement to Jo, to her mom, and to me.

Jo shared with me a few days later how impressed her mother had been with Victoria - that someone so young had such a gracious heart and such wisdom.

A few days before Karen died, Victoria had written about her on her blog. She didn't tell me about it, I just stumbled on to it because I read her blog. It was a beautiful post, in which she described Karen as a hero. During Karen's final days, Victoria took the time to meet Kody, her son, and reach out to him, so that he would have someone his own age to talk to and visit with. She went to the funeral home for visitation with me - even though this is something she hates to do - and then to the funeral with me. It was such a comfort to have her there.

Tomorrow, we will drive to east Texas to visit with Josh's family (her friend who was killed in a car wreck about three weeks ago). It was at Victoria's insistence that I called Josh's mom. She has written about Josh and shared that with me and with his mom. She has corresponded with his mom by e-mail. The depth of her compassion and the wisdom of her words seem beyond her years.

I will tell you more of her story later. She is indeed, an awesome woman.

May 20, 2006