Pam Padgett ... member of the body of Christ & spiritual gift of helps
My next door neighbor is an elderly man named Jim, a widower
living alone who has many health problems. It has become very hard
for him to drive his car, so for the past few years I have taken
him to doctor appointments.
Until a couple months ago he was able to walk with a cane pretty
well. But then I noticed some problems with him keeping his
balance. I suggested he use a walker but he insisted this wasn't
necessary.
I was concerned and began praying about this.
One thought I
had before a recent appointment was to borrow an unused wheelchair
from another neighbor. I put the wheelchair in the car and told
Jim I had this, but he insisted he could walk from near the front
door to the doctor's office. He got out of the car and started
toward the door, not waiting for me to get the wheelchair.
However he almost lost his balance at one point and I was
barely able to steady him to keep him from falling. This
was frightening to me, but Jim seemed unaware of the danger.
His next appointment was a earlier this week. I prayed diligently about
how to handle this. Should I just refuse to take him unless he
agreed to use the wheelchair?
Then in a thought I heard to tell Jim how
much it scared me when he tried to walk to the
previous appointment.
I told Jim that I was taking the wheelchair, but before I could
tell him how much it scared me before, he started to resist. I
just went on and told him how it scared me when he tried to walk to the office the time before.
He immediately stopped resisting and said "OK".
Amazing! (Jim is a retired marine Lt. Colonel and doesn't easily
back down.)
And when we got to the doctor's building he waited to get out of the
car until I had the wheelchair ready.
As he sat down in the wheelchair I heard him say to himself "That feels
good!"
While coming home after the appointment he told me how much
easier it was to use the wheelchair than for him to try to
"hobble" to the doctor's office.
I'm so grateful that God gave me the way to handle this.
And using the wheelchair is much easier for both Jim and me!