This is an extract from tomorrows sermon.
The old lady was in her chair and I made her a cup of tea, she sipped it and looked at me carefully before saying much.....then she said. “I’m guessing they’ve sent you because they know I want to talk.”
I had no idea about that but settled myself down.....she did have a lot to say.
She spoke about her husband....how they had met, her eyes beamed with joy as she described their first meeting......he had been a handsome young man and he was on a motor bike....they didn’t have to wear helmets in those days and his hair was all tangled and he tried to straighten it.... as he looked at her......
It was love at first sight......she went home that night utterly convinced she might never see him again but knowing that she had met the man she wanted to marry.
He returned the next day and they did marry and she helped him with his work....
He worked for Mission to Sea farers.....traveling up and down the coast, helping anyone who needed it, raising money and taking services when asked.
Her eyes shone as she described him and his life. She could not understand what he saw in her......she said she was just ordinary, not pretty, not rich but he loved her too and they got married.
One night after supper he got a phone call. There were crew being taken off a stricken tanker , he was needed.
He went out immediately on his bike and his wife got a phone call during the night. He had been in an accident. He was in hospital. She wept when she told me that though they’d worked on him all night he died the next day.
That had been 40 years ago......she had carried on his work all that time until now it was time to rest.
She sighed....”I was never as good as him...he was a saint compared to me but I did my best.”
I was touched by her story.....even more so when I heard that she had died within half an hour of my visit....
As I left her she spoke for the last time "God sent you to me today. Thank you"
No thanks were needed.......it was a privilege.
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