(This is not the man that helped me)
It's -28 Celsius, warmer than it's been all week, but we got 2 feet of heavy, water filled snow in 2 days. The city has a law that within 24 hours of a snow, you must have your sidewalks shoveled, or they will fine you, then warn you again, and if you still don't comply, you spend a weekend in jail and pay the cost of the city shoveling it for you. There has been one little old lady shown in the newspaper smiling, doing her knitting in jail, because she can NOT do her shoveling, and isn't rich enough to pay the fine, so she paid numerous weekends in jail, smiling, knitting. I think after she was featured in the newspaper, many people offered to shovel her walks, and perhaps it made people look around for others who might not be able to shovel either.
Someone came to our door. That was rare. The only visitors we get are deliveries from the drugstore or mailman. It was a young man with a shovel who asked if he could shovel our walks. I said "SURE! How much?" He said "$20 and I'll do all the way around the corner." Well that is a GREAT price since we live on a corner and that's a lot of sidewalk, so I said "Sure, and you are welcome to come back anytime it snows, because we are disabled." He said "SO AM I" as he pulled up his pants leg and revealed a metal, artificial leg!!! "I said "That's amazing that you can do this! I guess it depends on how sick you feel." He said "Well I don't feel sick, so that's why I can do more, and I don't even get a tired leg, now! I also have a rod in my arm and in my back and lots of scars on my face from a car accident. I just can't stand to sit in my apartment. I have to get out." I said "Even at 28 below? Are you sure you're dressed warm enough?" He said "oh yeah, I don't mind the cold. I said "Ok, talk to you soon" and shut the door.
The snow was so heavy, that it was making the branches of our 40 year old pine trees drag down to a 45 degree angle. Last year there were roofs that caved in due to heavy snow. It seems our winters are reverting to be as severe as when I was a child, and we were bundled up in multiple layers of clothes from head to toe, along with boots that went over our shoes. They don't even make those boots anymore, because the snow got so light for about 20+ years, but it looks as if people will be needing those boots again, so maybe they will start making them again.
When this young man was about half way done shoveling, I heated up some hot chocolate, and called his name, and he came to the door. I said "Please, come in and get warm for a minute, here's some hot chocolate." He said "Oh no, I don't want to get your floor wet, but he gulped down the hot chocolate and said "Oh that feels good, I'm ready to go again." I gave him his money and he went back to work. He knocked on the door and asked if he could dig out our car. I said "SURE!" So he did that, and that was hard, because the bulldozer had piled up all the snow from the road right behind our car. I gave him extra money for that.
He makes me smile just to think of a person with an artificial leg, a rod in his arm and in his back, and he's out doing harder work than most healthy people are willing to do. He is not sitting and whining in depression, as he COULD be.
It also showed me that there are really different kinds of disability. He, who has VISIBLE disabilities, can do so much and lead a normal life, whereas people with internal invisible illnesses are often too sick to do anything normally. Their eating, sleeping, activity, nothing they want their body to accomplish works the way they want it to.
So often we see people in wheelchairs or amputees getting awards for all that they accomplish, as an example to others, but those people who are severely ill and WANT to do all those things are shunned and avoided by doctors, family and friends, because "they look just fine!" So therefore they ARE fine, according to those who quickly judge them.
Well that's the most interesting visitor I've ever had...so I just had to share!
My heart still feels like ground meat, and my brain is not working too well yet...it is running in circles about my husband's feelings, and about our separate futures. There are lots of tears and shaking and praying, but STILL I feel the comfort of the Lord and now I am sensing the answers to all the questions that I am asking...so I am blessed, and loved, and protected. How do people live life without the Lord???
We are having our most quiet Christmas ever, with all my Christmas decorations stolen while getting moved from one storage unit to another, and no money to buy more, and no desire to even decorate, with this being the 2nd year without Dad and I'm feeling such a terrible loss, I was expecting my husband to be here this year, I had so many things planned for the whole family, I was SO excited. We will quietly celebrate the birth of our Lord, but without the bright lights and decorations. Maybe I'll get some on sale when they go on sale for 50% off in January.
Bless you all. Each of you is as unique as a snowflake, each friend is a gift from God. I am blessed with so much support. Maybe someday the Lord will reveal why He wants me to do everything alone physically, even though he has sent me precious long distance friends. Thank you for all your prayers and kind words and comments. Forgive me for not being up to replying to each one, but they do mean a lot to me.
Bless you all,
Sheila
