Wordless Wednesday

Lainey At Applebees

Lainey loves to eat at restaurants! Here she is with Ginger at Applebees! Can you see her three teeth?

My Mother's Angel(s)

I was with my mother when she died, and her last words were, "There's the angel now, and I didn't even know he was coming!"

I'm not a big angel buff or anything, but I think it's interesting that my sister recently found this account of a trip Mother took a few years ago on her computer, and I'm wondering if it was the same angel:

Arriving in Hong Kong after a 24 hour flight from San Francisco, I was almost overwhelmed to see the huge Hong Kong International Airport teeming with people at ten o'clock on a Sunday night. I assumed that there would be English-speaking agents at the desks, but in my search I only found Cantonese-speaking Chinese men. My limited Chinese vocabulary was in Mandarin Chinese, and I didn't understand any Cantonese.

My arrangement, made for me by the World Health Organization, sponsor of my trip, was for me to stay at the Princess Margaret Hospital residence hall during my time in Hong Kong, so all I needed was to find a taxi to take me there.

My original schedule was for me to leave San Francisco on Friday night and arrive in Hong Kong on Saturday night. However, the airline had filled the plane in New York and when they got to San Francisco there was no room for the ticket holders waiting there. The airline paid waiting passengers $400 each to reschedule their flight until the next day, and assured the passengers that they would notify anyone in Hong Kong who would be waiting for us that we would arrive the next day. I gave them the list of telephone numbers for the WHO personnel who were involved in my planned visit. I had stayed with Yorkie and Bill Leong in Palo Alto, so they took me back to their home and brought me back to the airport the next day. Later I realized that all of the numbers that I had been given were office numbers, so none of them would be answered on Saturday night or Sunday.

So I arrived in Hong Kong on Sunday night. I later learned that they had met the plane the night before, with a sign saying "SHIRAS" to hold up so I would know that they were there to meet me. Since I wasn't on the scheduled plane, they thought that I was not coming.

When I arrived and found no one waiting for me, I wasn't concerned because I thought that I could call Dr. Ng at the hospital and get directions on getting to the residential wing where I would be staying, or I could take a taxi and go directly to the hospital residence wing where they were expecting me.

I walked through the airport crowd listening to see if I could hear anyone talking in English but only heard Cantonese Chinese. I went to a desk and tried to explain that I needed a taxi. I asked in English and in Mandarin but the clerks didn't understand. I tried to draw pictures of a taxi and of the hospital but the Chinese clerks were still puzzled.

Then I heard someone say, in English, "Can I help you?" I looked around and saw a nice-looking Chinese man, dressed in a suit and tie. Hearing his clear English, I assumed that he was a professional person who had been educated in the Unitd States. I told him my situation and he said, "I'm going to the hospital, and I have a car out front. May I take you there?"

After we got to the residential section, we went to a desk where he told the attendant who I was. She greeted me and said that they expeced me to arrive the night before, and that I was welcome.

I turned around to thank the man who had brought me, but he had disappeared.

The next day I met with Dr. Ng, my sponsor while in Hong Kong. He knew nothing about the man and said that they didn't have anyone fitting that description working at that hospital.

I now think that the man was an Angel in Hong Kong.

North To Alaska

Well, they did it! It was kinda fun taking the Es to the airport to catch their plane!

I carried Mark's guitar up the escalator

We said we were his "entourage"

Happy-Go-Lucky Emily didn't have a CLUE what she was getting into!

I'm pretty philosophical about it. Life is full of changes. Maybe I'm getting used to loss.

Some of My Favorite People

I'm Grateful For Friends!

"He gives and takes away;

blessed be the name of the Lord."

I'm grateful for the time I had "doing life" with Mark and Lisa, and I'm grateful that Spring and Stephanie and Laura will still be here! And I'm grateful for Annette, who took this picture before we left for the International Worship Institute Monday morning!