Tender Mercies

I have a UTI and I've been quite impressive about powering through and not saying anything. I was going to get an at-home test kit on Sunday but then decided I could wait until Monday. I did, and it confirmed my suspicions, but when I called my doctor, they don't prescribe antibiotics over the phone so I needed to go in on Tuesday to take a test there. And by Tuesday I was DYING! And not impressively stoic anymore.

They gave me an antibiotic and a miracle OTC called Azo that erased the pain almost immediately. Phew! Because Tuesday is Clara day and I didn't want to cancel on her. From the moment I stepped into her home, my discomfort was gone. What a tender mercy.

Speaking of tender mercies, I had a sweet experience last week. Have I mentioned Cliff, our landscape installer who has been a friend for years (ever since he installed our yard in the old house)? He takes good care of us and we love him like family.

His mom died a few weeks ago. He's not religious, but he called Dan and asked if he could come over and talk with him. "Because," as he said, "times like this it helps to talk to someone religious." His mom was 90 and had been pretty difficult throughout his life. Even downright mean. But Cliff is the type of guy who takes his duty, including familial duty, seriously, and he was able to mend their relationship and care for her over the years. When she died, he mourned for a lot of different things.

Last week I dropped off Nick and carpool at piano. I had a couple of errands to run before I picked them up in an hour. One was to stop off at Home Depot for a storage bin. As I pulled into the lot, I realized it wasn't Home Depot, but Target I needed to go to. Ugh. I figured I was there and I might as well go in and just make sure/check if they had the bin I needed.

As I walked down the aisle, I bumped into Cliff who was just heading to check out. I gave him a hug, told him I was thinking about him. He told me how much he appreciated Dan taking time to talk with him (he admitted he'd even cried while talking to Dan) and mentioned how he thinks Dan's pretty amazing. He said he needed to go and we said good-bye and I gave him another hug, then he stepped back and leaned on the shelf and proceeded to spend the next 45 minutes telling me about his mother's illness, family members, her death, crazy family stuff, how he helped, how they rely on him and the heartache involved and what he expects to happen in the future.

When my dad died and someone asked me how I was, I said, "Fine." Even though I didn't feel fine a lot of the time. But the truth was, I needed to tell the story from beginning to end or not tell it at all. It was a long one, and most people don't have time for that. So I didn't want to burden them with it. But some friends took the time, and it was very cathartic to be able to express it all. But like I said, it was important that I didn't get stopped half-way through because it felt like an open wound left bleeding if I couldn't finish.

I don't think me thinking all day "I need to go to Home Depot" is a coincidence. God knew Cliff would be there and he needed someone he could tell his story too. Someone who loved him, knew some of his history and cared. And had the time to listen. We all need that.

When Cliff was done, I turned around with him and walked to the cash register while he checked out. Then we went our separate ways and I picked up the kids from piano.