Isn't That What We Are Here For After All?
Have you ever bumped into someone you know well, but from your distant past at a completely odd place? A place so unexpected that you could hardly call it chance at all and know that you had really caught a glimpse of the higher power’s hand in your life that day? I mean a real, unexpected, full on unanticipated but undeniable that this was anything but a chance kind of experience? (That’s a mouthful.) It happened to me last week.
I was working that day in and out of several different cardiology offices in town checking pacemakers. I was feeling the pain in my back and leg pretty significantly by Friday afternoon and was distracted not only by the constant ache, but my desire to put some ice on it. (More on my rebelling body in a future post.) Back to my story now. I had finished my last check of the afternoon and was making my way down a quiet hall towards the Rep Room to finish the chart work. Most of the doors were shut and the doors that were open remained dark inside as they awaited patients that would be checked in. I noticed the door at the end of the hall had been left half open and the lights were on. As I strolled by at a glance I saw two people, a man in a wheelchair and a woman in the chair beside him. We made eye contact and I noticed there was something familiar about his face but couldn’t place him. I said “hi” so as not to be rude and kept walking. Then I heard his voice respond “Hi Michele.” I did a 180 because I instantly recognized the voice. I peered around the corner. “John Coslett!” I said. There sat the man that had been my manager some 25 years ago when I worked at one of the local hospitals in the heart labs. We had since moved to other professions, me to the pacemaker industry and he on to leadership at one of the spine hospitals in town. I was delighted to see both him and his wife and he embraced me in a warm, friendly hug. “What are you doing here?!” I asked. We spent the next 15 minutes catching up on each other’s lives and our health struggles as well. He’d been having back issues and I explained to him my ongoing long term side effects from my treatments over the years and my current need to re-enter into neuro care. That being his domain he offered some knowledgable advice to me and I felt some of my anxiety that I had been holding on to melt away.
We sat in camaraderie for a minute reflecting on our broken human frame and our gratitude for the excellent care we had both been afforded for what ails us. John told me what an inspiration I was to him as he followed my blog and my life on social media. He told me to contact him if I needed him in any way as I navigated back into the “neuro-world”. I told him that just seeing him and talking to him had lifted my spirits and he said I had done the same for him. I told him God had a hand in this and there was nothing “chance” about it. Just then an MA poked her head in to speak with John about his medical care. That was my cue to leave, so we embraced again and said our goodbyes, wishing each other well. I walked past the confounded staff member as she knew he didn’t have a cardiac device. I smiled at her and assured her we were old friends.
As I reflected this past weekend at me seeing this particular friend from the past at such an interesting moment I knew several things to be true: We had needed each other that day. We needed some one to lift our souls outside our aching bodies and help them remain in a state of joy and gratitude no matter our circumstance. This encounter, arranged by God, was meant to remind us that we are not alone, that there is hope and purpose to our lives and we are meant to help our brothers and sisters. Isn’t that what we are here for after all?
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July 23, 2019 at 2:19PM PDT by Private UserMGBY,
PaPa John
