Our Mother's Loving Hands

One of my favorite activities is the collection of stories. I relish the sound of a family legend or local folktale. One summer I had the privilege of hearing a professional story teller spin her craft and was fascinated at her ability to weave words and evoke voices for each of her characters. My favorites though, were the stories that she swore "on her mother's grave" were true. The tales that were too fantastic to be made up.

It stirs something in you, knowing that a story is true. It reminds us that the things we hear from books or the pulpit actually happen in real life. It reminds us that miracles do happen, prayers are answered, and that no coincidence can't be proven to be providence.

Therefore, I am most pleased to present this true story (I promise!) about hard circumstances and the unforeseen answer to desperate prayers.

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Once upon a time, not so long ago a young mother gave birth to twins. This woman, named Denice, was blessed with two little bundles of joy who also happened to be afflicted with a colicky disposition and very low immune systems. When one of them got sick, the other twin followed not long after.

It was late march, not long after the twin's first birthday. It was unseasonably warm. Just hot enough for people whose immune systems were adjusted to the subzero temperatures of Green Bay, Wisconsin to become ill. The two girls were no exception. They were both laid low with a nasty flu. Their pediatrician had advised that she keep them on a strict BRAT diet (bananas, rice, apples, and toast).

There came an evening after a particularly hard day in which Don found that she didn't have anything for the girls to eat. She couldn't leave them to go to the store and she couldn't take them with her either. Very soon they both began to cry. Their diminutive wails struck knives into her heart. She was a mother, these were her babies and she had no food to feed them! She tried in vain to call someone who could run to the store for her or to come and watch the girls while she went out. No one answered. Her Husband, Don, was working the 3- 11 shift.

This entire time the twins had continued to cry, the sound increasing the urgency and desperation that their mother felt. Finally, when all seemed lost, she sank down beside the crib they were sharing and, being a pious Catholic, said with great exasperation, " Mother, they're yours now. I can't do anything anymore!" She promptly burst into tears. All three of them were crying for what seemed like a lifetime, but what was actually less than 15 minutes when Denice heard the sound of a car pulling up their driveway.

She didn't know who it could be, but she thought she recognized the car as one of the neighbor's. She quickly wipes her eyes and attempted to pull herself together as a woman got out of the car and walked up to the door. It was Mrs. Rose, a foster mother who lived directly behind them. Denice opened the door and greeted the friendly neighbor. Mrs. Rose explained why she was there and Denice began to cry again.

You see, Mrs. Rose's brother was the produce manager at Ron and Lloyd's (a local grocery store). Periodically he had to get rid of food that was spoiling or past its "sell by" date so he would either give it to his sister for free or at a tremendous discount. Mrs. Rose opened her trunk and there was the answer to Denice's desperate cry for help: overripe apples, bananas, rice cereal past its shelf life and bread about to go bad. There was no more and no less in that car.

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God answered Denice's prayer in a desperate time of need. She put her little one's in Our Lady's care and who could better understand than our own universal mother? Who could be more sympathetic to a young mother and who could be better to present her need to her Son? It may not have been what she expected, but it most certainly got the job done.

Take courage, God hears your prayers. Even if He doesn't answer them in the way that you expect or want, He is always listening. Even an unanswered prayer can be a good thing. And if you feel like God would never hear you because you've turned your back on Him and His ways, remember this: We may not have God, by God always has us.

Until next week!

God Bless Y'all

P.S. I would also like to mention that the owner of this story, one of the twins, also has her own blog entitled The Glass Box. It's a collection of imaginings, poetry, and kvetching that I find rather intriguing and not a little amusing.