Sunday Reflections

I finally have a moment to go back and record some of my thoughts from the day of the surgery. Thornton hospital is a very nice, but very small hospital. At least it is in comparison to some of the other monster hospital complexes that we've visited. Also, it doesn't have a chapel. It doesn't even have a "peace room". I was speaking with another of "Those Who Wait" in the surgery waiting area, and I made that comment. "It is odd to me that there is no chapel here." I don't always visit them when they are available. Sometimes they are too empty and sometimes I am too full, but I like to know that they are there regardless. It was on my mind while I was waiting through Judith's surgery.

The surgery waiting area is on the second floor. The second and third floors are open to the first floor atrium. There is a grand piano on the first floor with an auto play device. It sits there and plays muzak most of the time. Occasionally, however, there is a volunteer that comes in and plays the piano for a while. The sound really fills up the space and is usually some poppy, upbeat thing, sometimes wandering into the New Age arena. Generally uplifting, that's the ticket. This is what was being played as I waited for Judith to come out of surgery.

After about 9 and a half hours, I saw the surgeon and his nurse practitioner come out and rush by to another area. The nurse saw me and briskly said, "we'll be back with you shortly." Nothing in his manner should have spooked me, but of course it did. I had been OK up to that point, but I began to unravel a bit. Then I realized what the volunteer had begun to play.

She played three hymns in a row. Three totally out of place hymns. Out of place, because in that particular environment, every attempt is made to be "spiritual" but not religious. She played "He Walks With Me (In the Garden)", "Morning Has Broken", and "Amazing Grace". I was stunned by it, and, by being stunned, was able to pull myself together a little. I looked up at the vaulted ceiling above the atrium and realized that I had been wrong about the hospital not having a chapel. It WAS one.

So I waited. The volunteer went back to the KLITE standards - Elton John and Chicago - you know what I mean.

Almost an hour later they came back out. Judith was fine and all was well.

The volunteer played one more song and then left. True story. What was the song?

"Blessed Assurance"