Dinner with Friends

I ate my evening meal in the dining room of our Health Center – read nursing home unit – last night. I do this fairly often. I sit with two friends whose spouses live there.

I used to live next door to Julia in one of the independent living halls. Then I downsized apartments and ended up in another independent living hall where Dick lives. Got that straight?

Anyway, the five of us sit around one table and Julia and Dick eat their dinners and feed their spouses. I feed myself.

One of the CNAs offered me a clothing protector – read large bib – one evening when I dropped spaghetti sauce on my white shirt front. I do that every now and then, not regularly, so I declined the offer.

One day, maybe.

But we won’t go there right now. Or ever, I hope,

You can’t live in a continuing care facility – the kind that offers independent living, assisted living and a skilled care unit, read nursing home – without wondering sometimes what the future holds.

But mostly I don’t think about it. As Doris Day sang, “Que sera, sera,” or “Whatever will be, will be.”

I’m just glad I have more than that to hang on to. The Psalmist says: I trust in you, O Lord; I say, “You are my God.” My times are in Your hands ...

Scripture also says I will never be alone. Wherever I am, He is with me.

I find those thought very comforting.

In the meantime – which is also in His hands – I do what I can to make life more pleasant for others. At least that’s what I think I am doing. Maybe I should rethink the possibility that my company helps.

Nah. It helps. Having a friend there helps.