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God – To be alone can be as deadly as the Coronavirus itself. To be isolated from those you love inflicts as much damage as the virus itself.
God – When the NBC reporter Janis Mackey Frayer was reunited with her 6-year old son, after seven weeks covering the Coronavirus Pandemic and her subsequent 14-day period in quarantine, I remembered myself as a small boy at Hedgecroft Hospital.
I will never forget the terror of being left alone at age six when my mother and father walked out of my room. Nor the tears of joy when I returned home months later to their loving arms.
What I experienced on that first day of isolation is being repeated around the world when men, women, and children are isolated from those they love when they most need the comfort and healing touch to survive the Coronavirus.
On August 26, 1954 Mom sat silently and stroked my hair as I laid in her lap on the backseat of the Delta 88 automobile. Dad drove to the hospital and said not a word. He knew for certain the directions to the hospital. Yet, he had no idea where polio would take me or my life or impact our family.
Mom and Dad followed alongside the orderly who pushed me on a gurney into a large room with other patients in beds and in iron lungs. The nurse said that Mom and Dad could only remain for a few minutes. Then, they must leave.
I was placed in a baby crib with iron bars (as there were no other beds in the hospital for me). I had no TV to watch. I could not move anything below my neck. I had no strength to push the button to call a nurse. No phone to call home.
So, I did what every child would do at that stark moment of fear and loss of control. I quietly asked my Mom to please stay with me. Mom said the hospital rules did not allow that. Then, I repeatedly screamed for her to stay. With eyes full of tears, Mom turned and rushed out of the room. In disbelief Mom and Dad were gone.
God, at that moment, I felt that Mom and Dad had abandoned me when I needed them the most. But, even then, they had left something in the hospital room amidst the patients, doctors, and nurses I did not know. Prayer.
God, I thank You for the minister, Skarden Daubert, who visited me every day in the hospital. He placed a prayer book in my hands and said prayers with me. He is with You now. The gift of prayer from You, parents, and Rev. Daubert will remain with me until my last breath.
God, in prayer, with Your love please lessen the pain experienced by millions of Your children who are isolated from their loved ones. Not just those who suffer from the virus. But those whose lives and callings take them away from those they love. The first responders. The truckers. The nurses. The doctors. The respiratory therapists. The EMT’s. Our leaders and ministers of all faiths.
Please lift up the hearts of those who are not able to be at the bedside of those they love when their earthly lives end and their eternal lives begin with You and in You.
We thank You for the moments of heavenly bliss when others are reunited with loved ones just as reporter Janis Mackey Frayer is seen hugging her beloved little boy.
God, prayer was not a cure for my polio. Prayer may not cure the Coronavirus or end this Pandemic. It will heal what medicine cannot. Amen
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Jack H. Emmott is a Senior Counsel of Gray, Reed & McGraw, LLP, a 145-lawyer full-service firm in Houston, Dallas, and Waco, Texas, a Board-Certified Family Law and Master Credentialed Collaborative Law Professional Divorce Attorney, Mediator, Author, Entrepreneur and Inspirational Speaker. For more information about Jack or his latest book, Bending Angels: Living Messengers of God’s Love, go to the Bending Angel website.