As I sat in trauma ICU for months at a time, I saw a lot of people come in and out. There were people who had no one who cared if they lived or died. There were people who had been shot and stabbed. I met a guy in the surgical waiting room with a 49 year old wife having breast cancer surgery. She has an 11 year old daughter. There were many people who had less injuries than Richard, but they included spinal cord injuries. That is one area (about the only one) that had no injuries on Richard's body. Such a miracle! In addition, he could have lost 100% of his sight, but he only lost 75% and that makes all the difference! That is a miracle as well!
We have had people travel from all over the country to come and see Rich while he was in various care centers. We had people come and visit regularly from our home town, which was 100 miles away. We had rides provided to visit their dad to our children.
We attended church in Albuquerque and so many people told us that they were praying for "Brother Elliott", even children. We had the sacrament brought to us in the hospital many times.
Our children were provided homes to spend the night in, meals to eat, tutoring, rides to school, rides to Albuquerque, etc. Wendy even got help buying and selling a car!
Richard was given various foods, a prayer shawl that he still has (9 years later), stuffed animals, audio books, big signs, lots and lots of cards, etc. I could go on....
I was given beds to sleep in, meals in people's homes, magazines, snack food, gift certificates to eating places, a hug in the Temple by a stranger (who knew who I was as soon as I said I was Sister Elliott), the list goes on. One family, that we had never met, let us use their home for the enitre summer. They were not living in it because they had two homes so they let us use one, no charge. One woman let us stay in a bedroom at her home and I had nver met her either!
Richard had priesthood blessings from many, many people. His name was put on the prayer roll of more temples than I could imagine! People who had never fasted before wanted to know how to do so so that they could participate in our family fast.
My visiting teacher organized meals to be brought to us after we were home from both people at church and at work, which worked out quite well because she worked at my school as well!
I had a nurse come to our home after Richard was home to check on his ankle to see if she thought it was infected. No charge.
I had people come to my home to help with computers that were not working right, installing new plumbing, and one person would come and sit at my home while I had workers there doing things because I didn't want them to have free reign of my house while they did work for me.
In White Rock there is a white rock at the entrance to town that people write messages on. One family wrote a welcome home message to Richard when he came home one of this times that he was released. (He would come home for a time and end up back because of infections, etc.)
I got calls and emails from people that I hadn't heard from or talked to in years, and that was long before we were connected on Facebook!
One friend took a day off of work so that the family could be in ICU while she sat out with our grandson who was just learning to walk.
Another friend came to visit weekly, driving the 100 miles to just sit there with us and keep us company.
There were so many ways that we were blessed, and as we look back on others who might not have had such kindness given to them, we are humbled that people were so kind to us.
Whenever you are going through something that is so devestating and takes over your life in every way, every kindness that is given to you is so appreciated. If you are going through something hard, look around. There are many people who have problems that you would not ever want to have, and there are always people there to help lighten the load. I thank God for those people! I pray for those who are going through things that are hard. The truth is, life is hard. We have to be there to help each other, and I saw that in a way that I can't even begin to explain!
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