Ten-Finger Exercises

A beautiful day

Somehow since last night the sky cleared, and it was cold and blue and beautiful today. The patient I was going to meet at 10 died hours before that, but I got in to see a few others and made a good day of it.

One lovely old man waited for me when he was ready to go take a nap. He talked for a few minutes about his property and what he would have been doing ten years ago on a nice winter day like this. That's a question I like to ask, because it often leads people into telling good stories.

When he talks about his life, he always describes it as the best of all possible times. His mother and dad came with nine children to Ellis Island from Germany around 1930. She had pink eye, and they sent the family on to their choice of Canada or somewhere in South America. They chose Canada, and came later to this area where they had family. The family was very poor, but he got a full scholarship to a good college because he was a good athlete. He married his high school sweetheart, and he got a job with the railroad, which was the perfect job for him. They bought a house that was out in the country, with a creek that never froze or dried up, and room for horses.

You would think, from the way he talks, rather dreamily, that nothing ever went wrong in his life. It was the best of all possible worlds, and he is very thankful for it. Then he mentions that he prays every night, in German as his mother taught him, and he pictures his wife, who died a couple years ago, holding their baby daughter who died in her first year of life. His prayer is one of praise, that they are together now, and supplication that they are waiting for him. He feels very peaceful.