July 26 - “Completed …”

Well, it finally happened. Chris finally completed her fifteenth and last round of radiation. She came out of the doors to a chorus of cheers and applause. I was going to do a dance, but somebody had to shoot the video. The nurses and the front desk people came around and hugged her. I found out later that we could have had a big party right there and invited whoever we wanted. Wish I had know. I would have thought of something …

We did start our day earlier. Got all dressed up even. No, not THAT dressed up. But Chris wore a dress and I wore slacks and one of my dressy Hawaiian shirts. The occasion? Well, aside from the last day of radiation celebration, we went to a funeral. Very sweet, 92-year-old lady who has lived just down the street from us for years. Even going back to my early days as a kid here. Her name was Chris as well. 

For a long time Chris would give us a call if she needed prayer or if she was in some kind of medical distress. Guess she figured we had those two areas covered. We would walk down and my Chris would assess the situation and inevitably calm the other Chris down. She never called at night, though. Even though we assured her it would be fine, I think she felt like that was imposing on us a bit too much. 

Chris was a regular over at the local donut shop near our house, as were several of our neighbors. We saw her often as we would be out doing yard work. On her way to and from the donut shop, if she saw us, she would always stop and have something to say. She’ll be missed. 

On our way home from the funeral we stopped at Home Depot. We decided we had to bite the bullet and order a washer and dryer. At least they were on sale. And on top of that we got some kind of special user discount. No idea where that came from, but I’ll take it. And they let you pay out on their credit card for a year at no interest. Why not? Only bad side is that they won’t be delivered until August 9th. Oh, well … old school until then. Hang ‘em up in the back yard, then pop them in the dryer for whatever good can come of that. 

Romans‬ ‭15‬:‭4 says, For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.

Father, please be with Chris’ family as they walk through their grief. Amen.