Thursday, March 18, 2010

There are no atheists in foxholes - or hospital waiting rooms

It's the kind of thing that is absolutely impossible to ever be prepared for.  You think that it only happens to other people, because it's too unthinkable, too nausea-inducing, to contemplate that it could ever happen to you.

But it does.

My brother's eldest daughter was hit by a car today.  When I first heard the news, all we knew was that she had been riding on her ripstik out in front of her house, had been hit by a car, and it was very serious -- so serious that her local hospital (she lives out in the country in New Hampshire) decided to med-evac her to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.  As more information has trickled in, we've learned that she has a fractured skull, but her vital signs are stable and trending in the right direction and the swelling in her brain is decreasing.  She will be kept sedated for the next 3-5 days while her brain and her condition generally is monitored.  So all we do is wait, and hope.

I'm not a praying person.  Whatever belief I may have in God -- and I am deeply unsure of it, honestly -- I definitely do not believe that God is an intervenor in the world's events.  If he/she/it were, then things like the Holocaust would never have happened.

But as I was driving home from work today, shaking and crying and terrified, I'd be lying if I didn't admit that I said, out loud, "please, God, let her be OK.  Please.  Please."  And every time I think about that gorgeous, sweet, smart, cool, funny girl lying in a hospital bed, with tubes coming out of her, I ask again.

Please.  She has to be OK.

9 comments:

  1. Anonymous10:46 PM

    Heavenly Father, watch with us over your child and grant that she may be restored to that perfect health which it is yours alone to give. Relieve her pain, guard her from all danger, restore to her your gifts of gladness and strength, and raise her up to a life of service to you Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

    Sherice

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  2. Thank you, Sherice.

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  3. Oh Wendy. This is the one of the things I could imagine. I have no idea why shit like this has to happen. I don't want to know.

    You can borrow my God if you'd like It's pretty big and loving. I curse at it all the time for being a fucker. Afterwards I feel protection and love come back.

    I heard an Episcopalian priest once say, "God doesn't make things happen. But God allows for things to happen." Somehow it made me feel better.

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  4. I'm not a praying person either, but I said one for all of you just now. Things like this can really test us, but have faith that she has the strength and love of your family behind her. And all of the strength and love that can come from people you've never met on the internet.

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  5. Lori B9:01 AM

    Wendy, when unthinkable things happen I do whatever I think might help whether if that's praying, crying, yelling, making bargains with God and asking everyone I know to do the same. I am praying and making bargains and thinking of Emma and your family and hoping that we hear shortly that Emma is doing better. Hugs. Lori

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  6. Thank you all so much. I really appreciate you more than I can say. It's times like this that I am so grateful for the people that the blog has brought into my life, and for the people that it keeps me connected to.

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  7. Oh, Wendy! I am so sorry for your niece, for your brother. How horrible.

    I do believe in the power of prayer and will begin a novena for Emma right now.

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  8. Oh, I'm so sorry, Wendy. I'm hoping for the best. She'll be OK, she will. Sending positive energy to all of you.

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  9. Michelle L.8:59 PM

    Dearest Wendy, I have a mental picture of this sweet, sassy niece in my head from when she was smaller and your first niece/nephew and although also not a praying sort, fervently pray that she will pull through without a hitch. Keeping you and your fam in my heart and thoughts. Big smooch, Michelle

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