"Oz"

My days are becoming a little more usual now. The feelings of anxiety that I once experienced when mother first entered the nursing facility, have all but left me. I still have my moments, but for the most part, I have accepted the fact that this is the way it has to be.

I go to work each morning, then on most days, head on up the mountain for a short visit with mother. I will find her having lunch or just finishing up. The workers here seem to be exceptionally nice and caring.

As I make my way up the hall to the dining room, there to my right is the office of a lady who attended mine and mother's church when she was a little girl. Mother was also a co-worker of her mother's back in the 70's. You can imagine how unusual it is to be standing beside a grown up woman now, giving information to me about mother's care and all you can do is see the little freckled face girl, which you once knew.

I round the corner, there I see my old neighborhood friend, who lived just over the way from me, as a child, playing til dark each night until mother would call me in for supper. He has held many titles in his life, but felt that God was leading him here to work as custodian, as well as Chaplain. He is able to be close by mother at any given time. We talk and tease each other as we have done so for years.

Walking into the dining room, I see the food that's prepared by a wonderful Christian lady who visits our church every homecoming Sunday to sing in the choir, play the piano and just fellowship with everybody. She's the dietician.

This picture is becoming very familiar to me as I relate it to one of my favorite childhood movies, "The Wizard of Oz." If you're familiar with the movie, Dorothy was taken far away from her family and loved ones by a tornado (so she thought) to a land called "Oz." The characters that she met on her way; the Tin Man, the Cowardly Lion and the Scarecrow, were actually all her friends back at her home, but playing different roles.

As I leave mother today, I am comforted to know that these previous "co-stars" surround her. We never know who God will place in our lives or the roles He will give them to play; possibly starring with us more than once before it's all said and done.