God winked at 10:10 AM on that Sept. Tuesday

September 2002: A Tuesday morning

Sylvia, my widowed mother-in-law, had heard the tough news just before her 82^nd birthday. Doctors had diagnosed her with a small cell cancer along with the lymphoma with which she already struggled.

It became clear that living alone in the high rise would soon give way to moving in with us, or hospice care. My wife Rosanne, Sylvia’s only child, and I would have taken home, but mom didn’t want it.

Sylvia lived on just a little more than $700 a month from Social Security and an annuity left to her by Bernie. She banked half the money. But the total that remained would be eaten up in a few months at a nursing home. The only other source of funds was what Rosanne and I had set aside to pay the balloon payment on our mortgage due the following summer.

A family friend told us about the Our Lady of Good CounselHome in St. Paul. OLGC is a hospice run by tough, but huge-hearted nuns. Sylvia was Lutheran, but OLGC based admission only on availability, not the patient’s denominational choice.

OLGC had one very intriguing advantage over any other hospice or nursing home: It refused payment for its services. Charity, it seemed, drove OLGC, and a nice endowment from Rose Hawthorne, the sister of Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Well, our hopes were dashed quickly. OLGC had no openings, and Sylvia had to move – and soon.

We found a hospice program in a nursing home, but at a cost in excess of $5,000 a month. Sylvia could live for a few months or a year – no one really knew. All I knew is that we would blow through her money quickly, and soon have to tap our money. Oh, sure, we could have appealed to Medicaid, but I am old-fashioned about this believing we should care for our own, if we can, and trust God to provide.

Hence it was on that September day in 2002, sometime just past 10 AM, I drove west on Highway 36 through Roseville, trying to figure out how this would all work out. As I approached the Cleveland Avenue exit, I said to the Lord, “Well, if there is no other choice, I guess Rosanne and I will use our money to take care of mom, but Lord, you have to provide the funds for our mortgage balloon payment.” I noted the time – about 10:10 AM (I think I could tell you the exact spot I crossed on the exit ramp when I said the prayer).

I arrived home a couple of hours later, and walked into the house. Although I can’t recall it, I am sure I meant to tell Rosanne about my prayer and the decision I had made. But she spoke first:

“Our Lady of Good Counsel called,” she said. “They can take mom tomorrow.”

“What time did they call?” I asked. I had to know.

“Oh, just after 10 AM. Maybe 10 after,” she said.

God had winked, again.

Sylvia praised the nuns for their care of her, although she wanted something to do – they did everything for her. She lived there eight months before her death. The nuns washed her body and dressed her in a beautiful gown, but by then, angels had already draped an eternal gown on her body.