Angels

A Nurse by Any Other Name

They told her there was no other nurse in the operating room, but she knew better.

 

By Sharon Sigler

 

 

Surgery terrified me, but my doctor said it was necessary. “God, please be with me,” I asked as I sat in my hospital bed waiting. Finally a nurse came in. “I’ll escort you to the operating room,” she said, and helped me into a wheelchair. In the hallway another nurse caught up with us. “My name’s Joy,” she said. “And I’ll be with you, too.”

 

Joy didn’t leave my side, even as the anesthetic started to work on me. Just before I went under, Joy gently placed her hands on either side of my face. Her touch was so delicate. My fears left me and I felt completely at peace.

 

Back in my room after surgery, I told the other nurse how Joy had relaxed me with her touch. “Is she still on duty?” I asked. The nurse assured me there was no one on staff named Joy, and that she alone had accompanied me to the operating room. I knew better.

 

 

 

 

Short Story

Crash Landing

Without warning, our plane engine quit. I braced myself for impact

 

 

Many years ago, during one of our visits to see family in Silver Lake, Indiana, I decided to give my parents a tree for their yard. My wife, Marilyn, and I took our four young sons to a nursery and we picked out a sturdy blue spruce sapling.

 

“Someday,” I told the boys as we planted the tree, “this will be big enough to protect Grandma and Grandpa’s house from the sun and wind.” Over the years it was a pleasure to see how tall and beautiful the spruce was growing.

 

Eventually my parents passed away, but we still went to Silver Lake to visit the rest of the family. I took up flying, and once the boys were grown Marilyn and I made the 1,400-mile journey from our home in Idaho in my single-engine Piper PA-16.

 

One fall day we flew up for a visit. We circled the Silver Lake area to signal Marilyn’s sister and her husband to pick us up at the airport.

 

Without warning, our engine quit. We went into a steep dive. As the earth rushed toward us, I realized we were headed straight for my childhood home!

 

Praying desperately that no one would be hurt, I braced for the inevitable impact. But, instead of smashing into the house, something soft cushioned our breakneck fall. We skidded to a halt in the yard across the street.

 

Later, one of the rescue workers who helped us out of the wreckage told us, “It’s amazing you didn’t hit the house or power lines. That big blue spruce probably saved your lives.”

- James Haney

Happiness depends on what you can give, not on what you can get.                                – M. Gandhi

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