A Time to Rend...To Every Thing a Season chpt. 4

We were getting used to our new "home." The church basement was already set up with a couple of bedrooms (Prophet's chambers) and two bathrooms, so we had enough space to make us somewhat comfortable. The fellowship hall housed the kitchen, so we just took the other end of the fellowship hall and made it our living room.We never anticipated staying there very long. In fact, we had been looking at other houses, just trying to find the right one. Our plans were soon to change.

Labor Day weekend, we decided to go bowling again. Bowling had become one of our favorite past times, and since we didn't have a house payment while we were living at the church, we had the extra money to go more often. On Labor Day, we had decided to sleep in and keep our plans at a minimal.

While we were having lunch, Kevin's cell phone rang. Kevin ran to the bedroom to grab his phone, but by the time he finally got to it, he had missed the call. He could see that his missed call was from his Aunt Linda and Uncle Tommy. My heart sank.

Kevin quickly pressed the call back button, knowing that something serious had to be wrong. Linda and Tommy never called us. It was very unusual, and we were trying to figure out if something was wrong with Sandra, Jackie, or Grandma.

Tommy answered the phone. After the hellos, Tommy said, "Kevin, your momma is in the hospital. Her back pain became so severe Jackie had to take her to the ER. They are keeping her because it looks like she is going to need surgery. She's going to be transferred to Columbia later today."

We were relieved that everyone was "all right," but we were surprised to hear how bad Sandra's back had become. Surgery?? She said very little about her back pain the last time we had called. The queen of silver linings was holding information back from us.

Later that afternoon, we were able to get Jackie on his cell phone. The doctors would be making a decision by the next day on what course of action and which surgery would be best for Sandra. Like most people, we reacted negatively to the prospect of back surgery. My own sister has had two back surgeries with NO success. But once we talked to Sandra, we knew that she must have felt that it was absolutely necessary, as she had always been opposed to it as well. She said that all she wanted was to get out of pain and that she was willing to do whatever it would take to make that happen.

It was set. She would have surgery on Thursday, three days after Labor Day. Kevin decided right away that he would take off work and be by his mother's bedside when she awoke from her surgery.

We made our plans and said our prayers. We wanted to support Sandra and Jackie during this time. Jackie was waxing worse, and Sandra was feeling like she was to blame for Jackie not going to Duke. We wanted to help with any of their burdens that we possibly could, even if being over 200 miles away made it difficult. Kevin took a couple of days off work, and we were off to Columbia, just hoping we would be the first ones to see Sandra when she came out of the recovery room.