Mr. H

Mr. H was in the hospital for a very long time. He had a lot of health issues, one of which was dementia, to the extent that he could offer very little facial expression. His Alzheimer's (combined with a decline in the state of his physical body) had progressed to the point that he was only able to respond in one or two words to a question, if he could form a response at all. Some days he could not be aroused enough to say hello.

I went to see him every morning. This is how it went, on a good day:

Me: "good morning mr. H"
H: "good morning"
Me: "did you sleep ok?"
H: "Just fine"
Me: Do you know where you are?"
H: (nothing for several long seconds)
Me: "Thats ok, you are in the hospital. Are you in any pain?"
H: "No pain"

He started chemotherapy. He started dialysis. He got blood transfusions. And yet his response was always the same. One morning I went to see him and things went a bit differently. I asked if he remembered his wife coming to visit him the previous day with several of their friends.

H: "My wife?"
Me: "Yes your wife. She is here every afternoon. She loves you so much. A lot of people love you."

And then he started crying. No emotion, no change in his face, just big crocodile tears spilling down his eyes. He was too rigid to reach up and wipe them away, so I did. I kept talking to him about how it must be so hard to have so much going on and to not understand, to be in your head and not be able to express your thoughts. More expressionless tears. I asked if I could pray with him, he said yes. I said the 23rd psalm to him and he kept crying. I asked him to tell me if he was in any pain and he said "The Lord watches over me, so I will be ok." And he squeezed my hand. And I shed some tears of my own. I left that room thanking God for showing me His presence in that man, who I and many others overlooked every day because he couldn't talk to us. I was reminded that God joins us all together as one family, whether or not we acknowledge it. And every person has a soul created by God and worthy of honor and respect.