Previous Challenge Entry
Topic: TEARS - (as in crying) (10/04/04)
TITLE: Tears unshed By Karen Treharne 10/11/04 |
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According to the nurses, six-year-old Patrick was the beloved only child of Julie and George Morrison. He was lovingly spoiled, patiently over-indulged and bright beyond his years. Blond and blue-eyed, he was taller than most of his school mates, and loved to play with his best friend, Mike, his grandparents’ golden lab. It seems that when Patrick was just a few months old, Mike introduced himself with a firm, sloppy kiss on the boy’s face that made him laugh gleefully. They had been inseparable ever since.
For four hours, the team of dedicated medical doctors and nurses had done their best to forestall the tragic end. But in the final analysis, the car accident had rendered their efforts hopeless.
As I approached the family sitting together on a couch in the surgical waiting area, his grandparents were huddled close in prayer. I swallowed with difficulty and waited for them to finish. I took the moment to reflect on my own three children waiting for me at home, and how I would be with them soon…how I would hold them close and kiss them…
Finally, they stood and looked imploringly at me. But my hesitation and down cast eyes told it all. Tears streamed down their faces as they looked at mine. I had seen that recognition before when loved ones sensed the fateful message I was bringing even before I spoke.
I nodded in ascension and put my scrub-clad arms around their shoulders as they openly wept. The sorrow I felt for their loss was clearly visible in my own drawn features, but couldn’t even come close to the devastating impact that death imposed on those directly involved in the tragedy. When I suddenly became aware of the small upturned face of the child caught between us, I was instantly caught off guard.
What astonished me was that there were no tears in those sky-colored eyes!
Instead, Patrick was consoling his grandmother and grandfather in their grief. Patting them on their arms and murmuring, “It’s okay nanny and poppy…it’s okay…please don’t cry…it’s okay…”
I listened in awe as he continued his faith-filled consoling, “Mommy and Daddy are with Jesus now and they aren’t sad - It’s okay…really…
There aren’t any tears in heaven”.