That scenario didn’t pan out as planned; but in a way,
it worked out the way the Lord would have it.
My brother and his wife needed a place to live as they fled an
increasingly violent stricken area of Uganda, Africa where they’d been serving
as lay missionaries. Apparently, Daniel
had been injured during a fall and his early signs of dementia had accelerated
as a result.
We offered them a safe haven and they accepted our
hospitality, acknowledging that they’d be helping to offset some of our living
expenses like utility bills. This has worked out well going on right at a year
now.
Daniel has been keeping up physically, doing lots of
exercises, jumping constantly on a small trampoline looking gizmo along with
walking the property back and forth.
He’s supposed to stop when he reaches the end of our property and turn
around; but this morning Lucy was in the kitchen and noticed as he reached the
front gate, he appeared to have it in his mind to go further as he disappeared,
going down the private road and out of sight.
I got into the pickup truck and drove off in the
direction Daniel had gone. It didn’t
take long to catch up as he was only an eighth of a mile ahead, casually
walking in his pajamas while wearing a nice woolen cap; our morning temperature
being about fifty degrees. With the
windows rolled down I eased up along side and encouraged Daniel to hop in.
“Oh, Thank You”, he responded, “I’m looking for a
friend who has a house over here.” I continued driving down the hard packed
dirt road past the Finley’s property.
“Let’s check the mailbox”, figuring he might enjoy
going a bit further. I drove the truck onto the county road and used our
neighbor’s driveway entrance to get turned around to facilitate access to our
mailbox. Daniel appeared a bit agitated,
not being familiar with the landscape he was now seeing. “There’s our mailbox. Let’s see what’s inside”.
“Oh, that’s a good idea. We’re expecting a package today.” Upon opening the drop-down lid, it was clear
the mailbox was nearly full with letters and small packages.
“This package has your name on it. See, Daniel Stern”, handing it to my brother
who again explained that they’d been expecting this delivery. The rest of the mail was addressed to Lucy,
mostly junk mail from folks looking for donations since Lucy’s a sucker for
various charities.
“Oh, this is the one we’ve been waiting for.” I drove back to our property and into our
driveway. I could see Daniel’s wife, Lisa, in front of our house as she played
with our dogs while talking to Lucy who was sitting on the porch. It was plain to see they were glad I’d
corralled Daniel and brought him back.
I stopped the truck to permit my brother a chance to
get the door open and exit. He handed
the box to his wife Lisa and introduced himself, “Hi, I’m Daniel”, to which she
replied, “I’m Lisa”.
“I found another American while on my walk”. Daniel
was doing his best to explain his good fortune at having found a friend while
he was on our private road.
While this sounds a bit surreal, I have to wonder how
all this must be jumbled up in my brother’s mind as he tries to make sense of
this world he’s now living in. We must
be ever so gentle with Daniel as he faces battles we can’t even comprehend.
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