Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

My anger will be aroused, and I will kill you with the sword; your wives will become widows and your children fatherless.

• Exodus 22:24

so that the Levites (who have no allotment or inheritance of their own) and the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns may come and eat and be satisfied, and so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.

• Deuteronomy 14:29

And rejoice before the Lord your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name—you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, the Levites in your towns, and the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows living among you.

• Deuteronomy 16:11

Be joyful at your festival—you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levites, the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns.

• Deuteronomy 16:14

Boilerplate

I’m Harold Dykstra.  I’m retired, but I go to food bank distributions all over Tracy and talk to people that need someone who will listen to their story.  My time is well spent.  A police lieutenant suggested that I write down the conversations that I had with an angel.  I did not know she was an angel at the time.  The angel, for a little over a year, indwelled a life-sized posable action figure my children bought me, so that I would not be perceived as travelling alone.  And in a way, she was training me for what I do while talking to the needy.  She probed my heart to find out what I believed and how I express love for others.  She changed my life.

In her leaving, she said someone would come.  I had thought that was Jesus, in His second coming, but a new Babs, a little older, the model for the posable action figure arrived.  While I had no desire to start over with romance, Morrie helped her move in, thinking she was the other Babs who had returned.

This Week’s Question

Last week, Babs worked how Jesus loves her into a conversation during her daily walk and got a rough introduction to what might happen.

This week, I had a minor procedure.  Please, do not get the wrong idea.  It was a little snip-snip.  All was fine.  The procedure was outpatient, but they insisted that I have someone with me in the house that night.

Hey!  That’s why Morrie rented the upstairs apartment to Babs.  But Babs wanted to be with me for those 24 hours.  I insisted that I had been anesthetized several times in that manner, and I never had a problem – EVER!

So, after we had our Bible Study that night, she tucked me into bed, just five feet, five inches from the toilet seat.  I’m an engineer.  I measure such things.  I had a glass of water on the top of the linen cupboard along with all my allowed medications.  No way would I take the heavy-duty stuff they prescribed, unless this was a pain I had never felt before.

Yes, she literally tucked me in and kissed me on the lips before she went upstairs to her apartment.

With everything that happened, I hoped to sleep through the night.  I had a walker, left over from caring for my wife to help me stand up, but less than six feet away does not need a walker…

Famous last words.

I got up about two in the morning to go to the bathroom.  I used the walker to help me stand up.  I stood for a few seconds to be sure I had my bearings.  Then, to step around the walker, I took a step to the left and something felt weird, so I held out my hand to steady myself against the linen cupboard.  I accidentally hit the glass of water with my hand.  It flipped over and hit a pipe that had been left there by the renovators when I got a local company to convert the house from hot water radiators to central heating.  He was going to charge a fortune to yank that pipe out of the master bedroom.  I thought it highway robbery, so the pipe was capped off to prevent a sharp edge, and I parked the linen cupboard next to it so that no one would ever trip over it.

I sat back on the bed wondering how I could get to the bathroom without stepping on broken pieces of glass when the bedroom lights came on.

“Harold!” Babs commanded, “Don’t move until I have the broken glass picked up.”

“Why was the water in a breakable glass, Babs?” I asked.

Babs sighed, “Simple.  It was your favorite glass, now somehow not your favorite glass anymore, and you insisted there would be no problems tonight.  There were problems, Harold.  And I saw you wiggle.  Do not move.  You may have a shard in your pajama pants leg or on your feet.  When I have the carpet clean, I will work on your feet.  And then, I am not going back upstairs.  Just wait until Willie and Morrie hear that we slept together.  They have been waiting for this day.”

I turned my head to state she was not sleeping with me, and I was blinded.  “What do you have on your head?”

Babs groaned, “You know what I used to do for a living.  We sometimes had after parties and after stepping on a carpeted floor and cutting my foot on broken glass, I bought this miner light.  High intensity.  I’ll turn off the room lighting and then I can see every little glimmer from every shard.”  She giggled, “And you thought you were the engineer and had all the tools!”

After about an hour, of her crawling around on the floor and bossing me around, she said that I could go to the bathroom.

I said, “Sorry, I forgot you made me wear one of those stupid diapers.  None of this was necessary, but I have to change the diaper.”

She turned the lights back on so that I could see where I was going.

When I emerged from the bathroom, I saw a line of pillows, wrapped in a sheet that split the bed into two beds.  I had a king-sized bed.  Now it was two twins.

“What is this, Babs?”

She looked up and said, “I read a report about how the Amish can sleep together before they get married.  It’s called ‘bundling’.  There is a board that separates the couple.  They can maintain the ‘no sex before marriage’ thing and find out if each other has a snoring problem.  We’ll have to use the honor system, since the pillows are not a hard barrier.”

“Or you can go back upstairs once you get me a glass of water in a plastic cup.”  I said.

Babs giggled, “First, I am not leaving.  Second, I have a metal sippy cup on the linen cupboard.”

I turned around and there was my double-walled metal travel mug.  I growled, “That is not a sippy cup.”

Which Babs replied in a silly voice, kind of like when Shirley Temple sang about the good ship lollipop, “Says the old man who knocked over a glass of water an hour ago.”

She got onto the bed, but we did not have to fight over the covers. She had shifted the covers toward my side of the bed, and she slept on top of the covers, wrapped in a comforter.

After an hour of hearing her rhythmic breathing, I said, “With all that excitement tonight, I can’t go back to sleep.”

Babs giggled, somehow fully awake, ‘Okay, I will lead the Bible study.  Really, I will read some Bible verses.  You listen and count sheep at the same time.  Oh, excuse me!  You are the engineer, but women are better multitaskers.  Listen to the Bible verses, but do not feel compelled to respond.  Maybe sleep will sneak up on you from behind.”

I moaned, “I knew I should have stayed overnight in the hospital.  Oh, sorry, Babs, sure, you read.  I do not respond.  Got it.”

Babs started with Exodus 22:24.

I replied, “Babs, have you done a search of verses that have widows and fatherless?”

She giggled, “There are eleven of them.  All in the Old Testament.”

I suggested, “It’s widows and orphans in the New Testament.  But is there a reason you picked that search criteria?”

Babs asked, “Are you not a widow?  Do you not need to be cared for?  Wouldn’t God be angry with me if I fell down on the job?”

I groaned, “Technically, it is widower but continue on.”

Babs went on to Deuteronomy 14:29, Deuteronomy 16:11, and Deuteronomy 16:14.  I am sure she read all eleven verses.  I was not awake to notice.  She said that when she switched to the search for “widows and orphans” she noticed that I was asleep, and she turned off her phone and got a little sleep herself.

The next morning, the bedroom door opened, and Morrie came in, since he had a key.  I woke up with a start in fear that Babs was asleep in bed with me.  Morrie said that a neighbor had called him to say that it looked like a scene in an old movie in the bedroom in the middle of the night.  Lights were out but this flashlight was flickering everywhere, like someone trying to find something.  He explained that I had surgery that day and I was in my bed and Babs may have been trying to check on me without disturbing my sleep.  I explained what happened and then the bathroom door burst open.

Babs said, “Morrie, so great to see you.  Your Dad is just fine.”

Morrie asked, “Babs!  What are you wearing?”

Babs looked down and said, “Oops!  At least you noticed.  I was cleaning up broken glass and reading Bible verses, and your Dad never noticed.  For about the last year, my bedroom attire is an oversized T-shirt and men’s boxers.  Do you like the look?”

Morrie shielded his eyes, “You have the body to pull it off, Babs, but it is a bit revealing.”

Babs sighed, “Okay, I’ll go change.  And note, I will go upstairs to brush my teeth.  This bundling routine was just to be here if he stumbled again.”  With that she ran past him and up the stairs.

Morrie asked, “Bundling?  And you did not notice that body?  Dad, are you alright?”

I sighed, “Bundling as in the Amish way of sleeping together without touching each other.  And yes, I noticed.  I was too tired from the surgery to do anything about it, and we have made a verbal agreement not to do such things.  But, yes, I noticed, and I liked what I saw.  I may be old, but I am not dead. But then again, I respect her, Morrie. You and Willie may be ready, but we are not quite ready yet. You can pass that along to Willie too. I am sure you will tell her that we slept together, omitting the entire bundling thing, which leaves more for us to explain. And I made it through the little process just fine. One little stumble and if the glass wasn’t breakable, there would have been no harm done.”

Morrie was still laughing when I went out the front door.

Credits

All these conversations remind me of my conversations with my wife.  We would talk about anything and everything.  And most of the time, it sounded like a discussion in a Sunday school class.

We have had our share of broken glass.  It is a lot easier to clean up on non-carpeted floors, but it doesn’t seem to shatter and spray as much on carpet.  And I bandaged my wife’s feet when I missed a piece.

As for the multitasking argument, I felt working multiple projects counted, but I let her win that argument by simply not arguing.

And I would do just about anything to avoid staying overnight in the hospital, even understanding their reasoning.  You do not get any sleep, and the nurses take care of the patients that really need help.  And I got totally ignored, except for one night with this nice Filipino nurse who was attentive.

And I do not think my wife ever wore a T-shirt and boxers.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.