David and Jean – two persons who were on my mind a lot in recent days. But on Saturday morning it was Auntie Hooi we visited. She had gone into hospital on the same day David my brother went back into hospital in Malaysia. She had her surgery on the same day and my brother David had his the next day, on Friday.
Auntie Hooi has had an upper vertebrae issue for a number of years. It has caused numbness and the risk of worse consequences hangs over her and finally after strong medical opinions, she had the surgery she had put off for years. David was suddenly diagnosed with a malignant growth in his kidney, around new year’s. He had that kidney removed on Friday.
Against these, I had decided to have as normal a weekend as I possibly can. I wanted to live life, and hopefully serve God, while I still can.
We had had a normal Saturday morning earlier on before visiting Auntie Hooi. I had planted a hydrangeas plant we picked up the previous weekend from a nursery in Warrandyte. It was good to be home on a weekend again, without the spectre of a long drive on the Hume on Sunday after an early lunch.
We drove into town to get to the Richmond Epsworth hospital. Auntie Hooi looked well although she wasn’t mobile, which would take a while to remedy. Later, Natasha her daughter turned up and then later a couple of her old school friends also rocked up. We talked, which was terrific. Just as we were leaving, Auntie Pin came in with lunch for Auntie Hooi, with Uncle Jin behind. We only spoke briefly as the parking meter was nearly up.
We drove back to Box Hill and got to know Rose, the new owner of Madam Kwong’s Kitchen. The food was still very good so we decided we’d keep coming on weekends.
After lunch it was grocery shopping (a lot, for some reasons) before we ended the day with a Disney movie – Kevin Costner in “MacFarland” – on Netflix. It was a lovely story of a battling football coach/school teacher ending up in a Mexican migrant fruit picking town in California. The football team was hopeless but he discovered the cross country running ability of the kids and coached them to be State champions. Typical Disney triumph against the odd story but it was a lovely way to finish the day, while waiting for an opportunity to speak with David on the phone, which Jean had told us would be better on Sunday.
On Sunday it was a great service at St Alf’s with the theme of God’s Grace as a raison d etre for our daily behaviours. After lunch at Madam K’s again, we came back and started clearing out some old clothes for op-shop, to clear the guest room for Kiddo and Mic to come visit over the Australia Day weekend. I then cooked some soup for the week’s dinner and did some ironing while Tress did more laundry. It was another very hot day and when we finally walked LBJ, the heat was still palpable. We came back and after exchanging messages with Jean, decided to give David another day or so of rest, before attempting to speak with him. From the exchanges with Jean, he sounds tired and up against it. So he (and Jean) remain in our prayers for now, as the only thing we can do, for now.
God’s grace requires a response. That was Mike’s message from the book of Titus on Sunday. I wonder how mine would look like. I wonder what God has in place for me as a response to His grace.
Ante 