Jun. 10, 2003 ~ Prayers needed
I'll call him "Mr. Billy." For privacy purposes, just about everyone in the journal has a pseudonymn. His first name is "Billy," but most folks call him Mr. Billy. He's in his nineties, and is such a sweetheart. I have rarely seen him without a smile on his face, until today. He just got out of the hospital, but wanted to attend a meeting of our civic club. Susan and I walked in together, and were both surprised to see him there. He is a good friend of her husband's, and she leaned down to give him a hug. Immediately she asked if he was okay, and if he needed her to take him home. I gently patted his arm and was alarmed. Cold and clammy to the touch, he seemed shaky, very unwell. He didn't want to go home, but he appeared quite ill. As the meeting began, I kept looking at Mr. Billy, his head in his hands. It looked as if he might faint. A couple of men tried to help him up, and he sank a bit. "Mr. Billy," I whispered, nudging Susan, who quickly rushed to his side. He finally walked a few steps, then he had to sit down. Our meeting was taking place at the fire station, the speaker was a fireman, and as he saw Mr. Billy in distress, he asked if he was okay. Mr. Billy seemed to say he was okay; the men helping him said he was okay; Susan shook her head... clearly he was not well. The fireman made a call, while a couple of the other guys (EMTs, I presume) came to be with Billy. So he was tended, lovingly, by a veterinarian who held a cool cloth to his brow and neck, and by the (presumed) EMTs, till the ambulance arrived. (No, the ambulances do not live at our fire station.) It was hard to stay seated, but when someone is ill, they do not need a big crowd gathered round them.
He did not want to go to the hospital; he did not want to go home. He lay on the gurney in the cool air of the training room, surrounded by paramedics, till his daughter arrived. She was shown to where her father lay, and that's when Susan and I reluctantly left. There was nothing else to be done, and an excess of people would have only caused problems.
I stopped at church a little later to see if our minister knew about Mr. Billy, but he was out on a call. I explained the situation to the gentleman in the office, who got on the phone and tried without success to track down the minister. When I left, he was calling the fire station to see if any info was available about Mr. Billy's condition. I will check back a little later.
Mr. Billy is such a precious man, and truly a pillar of our community. He has no idea how much he means to so many people. He has been in many a tight spot, health-wise, in the past few years, and has made it through. So we hope that will happen this time, too. He may have just had a sinking spell, but he looked quite ill to me.
Your good thoughts and prayers are needed, and are very much appreciated.
Later... Mr. Billy is in the hospital, our minister by his side.
All rights reserved
_______________________________