Callie and Charlie
God is not unjust;
He will not forget
your work
and the love you have
shown Him
as you have helped His
people. . . .
— Hebrews 6:10 (NIV)
I was visiting a friend when her college-age
daughter Callie stopped in, all teary-eyed. She works as a certified nursing
assistant at a nursing home. It turns out her favorite old gent had passed
away.
Although it was sad, it marked a
turning point in her life. She is going to make working with the elderly her career.
Sure, she could make more money and find more excitement elsewhere. But she can't
leave those old people. She loves them. And it's all because of Charlie.
He just took a shine to her. And who
wouldn't? She's young, beautiful and a little sassy, and he liked that. One
day, she was breezing down the hall toward the therapy room to get something,
and she heard a muffled shout:
"Hey! Come back here!"
She didn't think the words were
aimed at her. But on her way back down the hall, a cute 80-something man was
standing outside his door.
He mock-scolded, "Don't you walk
past my room without stopping in to say 'hi' to me!"
She melted. He was so adorable.
By and by, he figured out her
routine. Every time she'd go down that hall, he'd be sitting outside his room,
waiting for her . . . waiting to catch her for a quick word or two.
"He was my guy," Callie says. He had
worked as a gardener. He was full of stories, and fun . . . and life.
Their friendship grew. He and his
wife Betty, also ill and in another room at the home, started telling people
that she was their adopted granddaughter. She called them "Grandma" and "Grandpa."
They loved it.
But Charlie started getting sicker
and sicker. When things really got tough for him, he began to resist taking his
medicine . . . unless Callie said it was OK. The other staff took to summoning
her to his room so that he would comply. They even had to call her on her day
off, and put the phone up to his ear.
"It's all right, Charlie," Callie
would say. "I wouldn't let them do anything wrong to you. You be good. I'll
come and see you as soon as I can."
Thanks to a rare scheduling error,
she got to spend a lot of time with him before he died. For days, he had been
unresponsive. But that day, he was perfectly lucid.
"I told him I loved him and I would
miss him, but he would be in a better place," Callie said.
The inevitable happened. Afterward, staff
and residents gathered for a farewell service in the room. Someone started
singing Amazing Grace; they got
through the first verse just fine, but then all but one voice dropped off. That
was Dennis, Charlie's longtime next-door neighbor in the nursing home. He was "out
of it" - except not that day. He sang the remaining five verses word for word,
while everyone marveled. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazing_Grace)Then
he pulled back into his "shell." It was a striking and fitting tribute to
Charlie.
But that's not all. Weeks later,
Callie was driving in her car when the dome light suddenly flashed on. Her
dad's an electrician; the family makes "light jokes." Whenever lights come on
inexplicably, they claim it's the calling card of a dear, departed grandfather.
Callie told her mom about her car
light. Her mom said, "That must've been Grandpa."
But Callie said, "No, I think it was
Charlie - because he'd be the type to come back and take care of me."
Well, why wouldn't he?
A beautiful young girl serves as a
bridge for an old man's final journey, showing him sweetness and endearment, a
foretaste of his heavenly home, an aftertaste of the best we humans have to
offer: love.
Is there more important work than
that? More rewarding?
Yes, Callie. Give your life to the
elderly. Share your sparkle, your caring, your tenderness. Love them for us,
Callie. Remind us never to walk briskly past them . . . without stopping in to
say "hi." †
