At Christmas my daughter, husband and I tried to buy lots of
presents for my sister. Usually, we gave her something big from the three of us
and then each of us gave her two or three smaller gifts, so she’d have lots to
open. Quite often she asked for Vitamin C, face cream, blue jeans and warm
sweaters.
Christmas Shows Us Miracles
Are Possible
When we turn
impossibilities over to God, he works the miracles we yearn for.
***
I awoke sitting up in the bed in the middle of the night. Not
knowing what had happened, I gazed into a quiet, calm room. Dim lighting from outside
seeped through the blinds.
You have to take care
of your sister. I shook my head at the strange words pouring into it. My
sister had suffered a brain injury in a car wreck, but my mother took great
care of her.
***
Fifteen years later both of my parents died. Another family member
and the lawyers handling my father’s estate insisted on institutionalizing my
sister. By then I had a child as well as a husband and lived in a different
city. My insides tossed. My brain turned to scrambled eggs, and my heart broke
into a million pieces because I was the only person who wanted to help her, but
it was impossible.
I hardly could concentrate on tending to my family as I
tried to understand how to change the course of events and fill this need. I certainly
couldn’t leave my husband and daughter. Should I bring my sister here? We’d
tried before the wreck, and she hated living in the city.
I phoned my sister to discuss a solution. By now she trusted
no one in our family, and wouldn’t talk to me. Her situation tugged at my
heartstrings day and night. I called again. When she failed to answer, I nearly
crumbled. Where was she? Had they put her in an institution?
Finally, I found her, and yes, she had been permanently
committed to a state facility. However, the nurse hadn’t realized there was
another family member. My sister didn’t have to stay there if I agreed I didn’t
want her to. I agreed immediately. After much conversation on my part and a
great deal of paperwork, she returned to her home.
I still had no idea how to look after her. I pleaded with
her to trust me and help me solve her problems. She had a friend who had no
home who would stay with her if she had someone to handle her business affairs
and talk with her doctors and social workers. Was this what God had told me to
do fifteen years earlier? I hired a lawyer to ensure settlement of my father’s
estate and put an end to the institutional talk. Until my sister’s death her
friend cooked and drove her wherever she needed to go, and I fulfilled her other
needs by phone.
I had prayed constantly throughout this difficult time, but worried
needlessly. God had a solution to this problem before it even existed. My
husband and daughter often helped me help her. At Christmas I remember that God
blessed us by letting my sister’s friend and us be there for her.
CONNECT WITH GAIL PALLOTTA web site – http://www.gailpallotta.com blog – http://www.gailpallotta. blogspot.com Facebook –https://www.facebook.com/ AuthorsandMore and twitter Gail Pallotta @Hopefulwords
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