I fell in love with her voice before I ever saw her face….and now that she cannot speak it is what I miss the most!
These are the words shared by Vera’s husband Hollace, as we had the honor of transporting her from Tennessee to Indiana today. 82 yr. old Vera, her husband and daughter had traveled to Tennessee for the funeral of her brotherinlaw.
It was during this trip that Hollace awoke to find his bride unresponsive. She was airlifted to a nearby hospital and it was there that she was diagnosed with a stroke. Unaware of how long she had been down they were unable to do much for her. Unable to travel by car her family contacted us to transport her back home for rehab.
We arrive in her room and are greeted by her husband and daughter who will be making the flight with us. They have made sure Vera is ready to go. As we make our way from the ambulance to the plane we pause to pray for this family. After everyone is safely secured in their assigned seats, Abe makes his way into the beautiful blue sky. It is a clear day and a smooth flight. Vera seemed to rest peacefully the entire time. I took advantage of the time by asking Hollace to share some of Vera’s life with me.
I learned that she had worked as an LPN and their daughter had followed in her mom’s footsteps as she was an RN. They had raised 4 children together, 3 sons and 1 daughter. Hollace himself had served a few years in the service and it was when he returned that they had met. This is how it happened. Apparently many years ago there was a practice that took place that consisted of sitting with the bodies of those who had passed away until the time of their viewing and funeral.
This was something that both Hollace and Vera had each done. It was during one of these such events that their paths crossed. He said, ” I heard her voice and I knew that I had to meet her.” That began their courtship and just a few short months later they were married. Her voice alone had made quite an impression on him. Now here they are 68 yrs. of marriage later and he is missing the sound of that sweet voice.
DEUT. 4:12 THEN THE LORD SPOKE TO YOU OUT OF THE FIRE. YOU HEARD THE SOUND OF WORDS BUT SAW NO FORM; THERE WAS ONLY A VOICE.
We arrive safely in Ft. Wayne and we all pile into the ambulance for the trip to the rehab facility. We are met by our ambulance driver James, from Heartland. Yet another sweet story we are blessed with today. Heartland is very generous, donating their ambulance services to our patients here at Grace on Wings which is a huge blessing. As we are in route I asked James how is day was going and if he has always lived in the Ft. Wayne area. It turns out that today is his day off and he and his wife had made some plans for the day.
This is his first time in Ft. Wayne, he lives in Shelbyville. When he received the call for this run he told his wife that he would really like to do it, as he had been hoping for an opportunity to work with us for quite some time. She was only briefly upset with him but quickly consented allowing him to spend his day off serving this family. So James had made the drive all the way from Shelbyville to Ft. Wayne on his day off to serve this family. How generous!
Upon our arrival to the rehab facility we placed Vera in bed and once again prayed for her and her family. It was after this that Hollace took my arm and with a smile he told me that he too shared our beliefs about Jesus and once again thanked us for the care we had given to his family.
Thank you to Hal, Chet, and Nate for sharing this mission with me.
May God’s grace be with each of you
Many Blessings,
Shelli Engle RN
