While I sat in the reception area
of my doctor’s office, a woman rolled an elderly man
in a wheelchair into the room. As she went
to the receptionist’s desk, the man sat there, alone
and silent. Just as I was thinking I should make
small talk with him, a little boy slipped off
his mother’s lap and walked over to
the wheelchair. Placing his hand on the
man’s, he said, ‘I know how you feel. My
mom makes me ride in the stroller too.’*****
As I was nursing
my baby, my cousin’s six-year-old
daughter, Krissy, came into the room.
Never having seen anyone breast feed
before, she was intrigued and full of all
kinds of questions about what I was doing.
After mulling over my answers, she remarked, ‘My mom
has some of those, but I don’t think she knows
how to use them.’
*****
Out bicycling
one day with my eight-year-old
granddaughter, Carolyn, I got a little
wistful. ‘In ten years,’ I said, ‘you’ll want
to be with your friends and you won’t go
walking, biking, and swimming with me like you do
now. Carolyn shrugged. ‘In ten years you’ll be
too old to do all those things anyway.’
******
Working as a pediatric
nurse, I had the difficult assignment
of giving immunization shots to children.
One day, I entered the examining room to give
four-year-old Lizzie her needle. ‘No, no, no!’ she
screamed. ‘Lizzie,’ scolded her mother, ‘that’s
not polite behavior.’ With that, the girl
yelled even louder, ‘No, thank you! No, thank
you!
******
On the way back from a Cub
Scout meeting, my grandson innocently said to my son,
‘Dad, I know babies come from mommies’ tummies, but
how do they get there in the first place?’ After my
son hemmed and hawed awhile, my grandson finally
spoke up in disgust, ‘You don’t have to make
up something, Dad. It’s okay if you don’t
know the answer.’
*****
Just before I
was deployed to Iraq , I sat my eight-year-old
son down and broke the news to him. ‘I’m
going to be away for a long time,’ I told
him. ‘I’m going to Iraq .’ ‘Why?’ he
asked. ‘Don’t you know there’s a war going
on over there?’
*****
Paul Newman
founded the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp for
children stricken with cancer, AIDS, and blood
diseases. One afternoon, he and his wife,
Joanne Woodward, stopped by to have lunch with
the kids. A counselor at a nearby
table, suspecting the young patients
wouldn’t know Newman was a famous movie star,
explained, ‘That’s the man who made this camp
possible. Maybe you’ve seen his picture on
his salad dressing bottle?’ Blank
stares. ‘Well, you’ve probably seen his face on
his lemonade carton.’ An eight-year-old girl
perked up. ‘How long was he missing?’
*****
His wife’s graveside
service was just barely finished, when there was
a massive clap of thunder, followed by a tremendous
bolt of lightning, accompanied by even more thunder
rumbling in the distance. The little, old man
looked at the pastor and calmly said,
‘Well, she’s there. |
Linda Andrews 