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The Old Lady lay in her hospital bed. She stared down at the Thanksgiving meal the nurse had brought in for her. Gummy dressing with a thin slice of "cured" turkey on top! Over cooked green beans! Some kind of chopped up greens with a packet of salad dressing over it! A spoonful of applesauce! And, of course, the usual carton of low-fat milk! Ugh! What she really needed a glass of that homemade berry wine she used to make in years past.

The Old Lady's mind wandered back to Thanksgiving dinners of the past. Goodness! How she had loved spending days preparing the Thanksgiving feast for her family! None of that soggy dressing for her. She carefully prepared the cornbread dressing, using just the right amount of spices and chopped onions. And there was always that little dash of garlic. Not overpowering, but just enough to taste. There was no turkey for Thanksgiving dinner at her house. The feast that was spread before her family was a delicious fresh pork ham. Then, there were the pies... home made syrup and mincemeat ones. There were vegetables from jars. They had been canned fresh from the garden during the long hot summer. And, the new crop of yams, fresh dug and baked to perfection, were sweet and juicy. The Old Lady looked down at the tray of food again. "Goodness gracious! We wouldn't feed the hogs this slop," she muttered to herself.

The Old Lady thought of her family. She saw them so seldom she probably wouldn't recognize her grand children if she met them on the street. When they did come, they always brought their computer games and stayed busy playing with them the whole time they were there. Or, they were checking the TV to see if there was a ball game on. "What happened?" the Old Lady wondered. "What happened to families walking in the woods enjoying the fall colors and picking up wild nuts after the big Thanksgiving dinner? What happened to playing ball, or doing other outside things together? What happened to just being family, building memories and getting to know each other on these festive occasions?"

Two of her children had called her this morning but that wasn't like them being there with her. Her daughters would be cooking Thanksgiving dinners for their own growing families. Her oldest son was with a company up there in New York State. Another one was overseas working on an oil rig. "Couldn't he get a job closer to home?" The Old Lady questioned his place of employment. The youngest son always had to spend the holidays with "Her" family, as the Old Lady referred to her daughter-in-law. "Well! He has a mother, too. Guess the next thing they will try to do is stick me in one of them nursing homes Humph! That's what THEY think," she snorted.

The Old Lady continued to feel sorry for herself. How could this have happened to her? She had always been the strong one in the family, the one the others came to for help. She was the one who held the family together. Where were they when she needed them? Why had it happened? As she often asked of herself these days, "Why me, Lord?" She had so many questions. Questions she could not answer. She had walked out to the mailbox for years to get her mail. What was different this time? What had gone wrong? The last thing she remembered before waking up in the hospital was reaching in the mail box to get the mail. She was told her neighbor drove by and found her lying on the ground and called an ambulance. The doctors said she apparently had a "mini" stroke. Well, if this was "mini", she certainly wouldn't want to have a "major" one. She felt all right except for weakness in her left arm and leg and wanted to go home. But the doctors said they wanted to keep her here a few days and give her some therapy. "Lord! If keeping up that acre of land and house and keeping the cat happy wasn't therapy enough," she thought. She had told the doctor she was no good to herself nor to anyone else. "Why, I can't even pull my drawers up without help!" She begged to be sent home to die. The doctor ignored her plea and kept trying to reassure her that she may be able to walk again with the physical therapy.

A smiling young nurse came into the room to pick up the tray. She quickly noticed the Old Lady had not eaten. "Didn't you like your lunch?" She asked.

"If you had to eat that slop you wouldn't be so chipper and smiling," was the reply.

"Oh, I did eat it. It wasn't like my mother's cooking. tho. We always had those special tamales my mother made for the occasion. But, I was hungry and it was food," replied the young nurse as she laughed and sat down on the foot of the Old Lady's bed. Then, she added. "I'll bet you really know how to put on a Thanksgiving feast."

Surprised at the young nurse's sense of humor, the Old Lady asked, "Why are you so happy? You are working and not having dinner with your family. Holidays are supposed to be family times."

"I asked to work today." The young nurse shifted her position and continued the conversation. "The regular nurse has a family. She takes care of her mother and her three children. I am working for her so she can be with her family this Thanksgiving. My mother is dead and I never knew my father. I don't have any family except my patients. You are my family."

"But you don't know me. You have to wait on me. Child! I can't even bathe and dress myself without help. Why would you want to spend Thanksgiving waiting on me?" The Old Lady was quite puzzled.

" I do know you!" Still smiling, the young nurse continued. "You see! Before my mother died, she was very ill. I waited on her. She had taken care of me so I took care of her even if I was only twelve years old. I never knew much about suffering because my mother always hid her pain from me. Her pain was so bad in her last days, however, she couldn't hide it. After she died, an older neighbor, a friend of my mother, who lived alone, took me in. She made me go to school. She encouraged me to keep up my grades. I thought I would just get a job as a housekeeper or a waitress. But, no! She would not allow it. She encouraged me to go to college and become a nurse. She said God had given me a gift to take care of people and I should use it."

The young nurse removed the food tray and left the room. With a smile on her face, she waved to the Old Lady from the door, blew her a kiss, and said, "I'll be back to check on you in a little while."

In some ways, the young nurse reminded the Old Lady of herself. After her children were grown and away from home, she was always trading shifts with nurses who had families ... working for them on holidays ... working so children could have mothers with them on Christmas mornings, enabling them to share Thanksgiving meals, and working for other nurses on Easter so families could worship together. She would laugh and tell them she needed the overtime. But, they both knew this was not the real reason she did it. The truth was she did not want to spend holidays alone. Yes! In some ways, her patients had been her family, too. And, she worshipped on these days, too. Oh! It wasn't in church or anything like that. She would always pick a quiet time and go sit in the hospital chapel and talk to her God. She would pray for her patients and their families. And, she prayed for her own family and for herself.

As the Old lady dozed off to sleep her mind wandered back to Thanksgiving Days of the past. There had been happy ones and a few sad ones. The saddest one was right after her husband died. She had thought she could not go on living, had nothing to live for.
Her son had wanted to bring her to his house for the big meal. She could not go, could not make herself leave her house. She had spent the day quietly counting God's blessings. Surprisingly, the blessings were many more than she could imagine. Her Thanksgiving dinner that day had been a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Again, as in the past, the Old lady began counting her blessings. Her children were grown and had families of their own. They were educated and self-supporting, had good jobs. While she was a little jealous they no longer depended on her, she was proud, too. She was proud she had taught them well, taught them to be independent, and instilled in them the love of God. She was thankful for the phone calls of her two children earlier in the day. She was sure there would be more calls later in the evening.

As she thought of her friend who was diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease recently, she was thankful the "mini" stroke had not taken away her mind and that there was hope she would walk again. She was thankful for her minister who had taken time out from being with his family this day to come by the hospital and say a prayer for her. And, she was thankful for all the prayers that were going up to her Lord for her well-being. She thanked God for the neighbor who had seen her lying on the ground and got medical help for her, got her to the hospital in time for medication to be administered before more damage could be done to her body and mind.

The evening was growing late. The daylight savings time brought darkness much too soon to suit the Old Lady. She hated long, dark, lonely evenings. But, she was not alone this dark evening. Her Lord was standing by her bed. He was there in the form of the young nurse He had sent to comfort her.

As thoughts continued running through her mind, she remembered a young nurse aide on her shift many years ago. This girl had "the touch." She could calm the most anxious of patients. She knew just the right things to say and do to make a patient more cooperative and agreeable. She knew how to allay the patient's fears. This young woman was much like the young nurse taking care of the Old Lady. She always had a smile on her face. And like the young nurse, she, too, knew pain and disappointment. The Old Lady had encouraged her to go to nursing school. She had given her some of her uniforms and medical books. She helped her study. The Old Lady had been there on her graduation when the girl had graduated with honors and, upon receiving her diploma, pointed the Old Lady out and thanked her before the large crown gathered for the service.. Where was that girl now? Was she still taking care of people? What was she doing?

The refrain from an old hymn she had learned as a child began to run through her mind. It was a hymn sung by families gathered on the banks of the bayou many years ago during the long hot summers. On Sunday afternoons, after church service and dinner on the ground, there was singing, testifying, and baptizing until late in the afternoon when it was time to go home and get ready for the long week ahead. It was a refreshing time, a time of preparedness for what was to come in days ahead.

"I have found a friend in Jesus – He’s ev’ry thing to me,

He’s the fairest of ten thousand to my soul;

The Lily of the valley – in Him alone I see

    All I need to cleanse and make fully whole.

In sorrow He's my comfort, in trouble He's my stay, 

He tells me ev'ry care on Him to roll;

He's the Lily of the Valley, the Bright and Morning Star, 

He's the fairest of ten thousand to my soul."

He will never, never leave me nor yet forsake me here, 

While I live by faith and do His blessed will;

 A wall of fire about me, I've nothing now to fear..."

Just as the Old Lady was about to turn off her bed light and go to sleep, the young nurse appeared at her bedside. She looked very tired but she was still smiling. "We just heard from your doctor. Your physical therapy starts tomorrow. But, don't worry. I will be here to take you down and stay with you through the first few sessions until you get adjusted."

"But you don't work the morning shift," the Old Lady informed her.

"I will be working it the next few days. One of the nurse's children is sick so I promised I would be working her shift and mine the next few days," was the reply.

The young nurse adjusted the covers on the bed, turned off her light, and bent over and kissed the Old Lady on the cheek and said, "I will remember you in my prayers and I will see you in the morning." Again, she smiled and blew a kiss as she left the room.

The Old Lady closed her eyes. However, she did not go to sleep until much later. She was too busy counting her many blessing .... blessing her loving God had bestowed upon her. The least of these blessings was not the young nurse. That blessing stood tall in her list of the many things she had to be thankful for. It stood pretty close to the top of a very long list.

As she closed her eyes and was almost asleep, The Old Lady felt a hand on her shoulder and a kiss on her cheek. At first, she thought it was the young nurse. When she opened her eyes, she saw the face of her son. Her son who was supposed to be working on an oilrig in a foreign land! How did he get here? It was long past visiting hours. No visitors were allowed in the hospital at night.  Was she dreaming?

"Hi, Mom! I didn't think I could get in what with it being so late, but a young nurse saw me at the door and let me in. I was hoping I could get here before Thanksgiving was over." Saying that, he reached down and put his arms around her.

The Old Lady held him tightly. "But you are supposed to be overseas. How did you get here?"

The son took his mother's face in his hands. "Mom! I've been thinking a lot lately about all the things I have been missing. I have applied for a position in the home office. Yes! I know it will be a lot less pay, but that is not important. I am tired of running around the world. I want to be closer to you. I want to be closer to my sisters and brothers. I want to be here where I am needed."

The Old Lady was overcome with emotion and, trying not to show it, said, "If you hug me any tighter I am not going to be able to breathe." The two of them laughed and then sat quietly for a while, their quietness saying more than a thousand words could say. Her son kissed her again and left the room with the promise he would be back early the next morning.

The Old Lady lay awake for a long time. Her thoughts were many. What peace and joy it brought to the Old Lady's heart to know that her God was a loving God and He kept His promises. Yes, He always kept His promise expressed in the old hymn. "He would never forsake her." He had kept that promise in some pretty dark times in her life and He would keep his promises and not forsake her even in these darkest of hours in her life. He would keep His promise and she would walk again.

Knowing God was with her, and after confessing her. love for Him, the Old Lady closed her eyes. A smile replaced the doubt and fear that had earlier shown in her face. Now! Now, she could go to sleep. Tomorrow she would begin physical therapy. Tomorrow, with God's help, and with the young nurse beside her, she would begin to learn to walk again. Tomorrow she would see her son again.

So what do I have to be thankful for? "He will never, never leave me nor yet forsake me..." How do I know? I know because He promised. And God keeps promises. Thank you, my Lord!