Visiting people in the hospital is usually not very difficult for me.  For one reason, I have had quite a bit of practice at it.  However, the main reason is that I usually find the patient in pretty good spirits.  They have had their health problem diagnosed and are now on the road to recovery.  They have been assured by the caregivers that they will be fine.
Occasionally, I visit someone who is not going to be fine.  Their health has taken an irreversible turn for the worse and the end of their time on earth is near.  While those visits are a little more difficult, I have been blessed in that the people I have seen in that state have gone out of their way, in their time of ultimate physical need, to put me at rest.
This week, visiting Stella Crawford in the hospital has been a sad duty because her time with us appears to be ending.  Her room was on the second floor of our local hospital.  For those not acquainted with the layout of that facility, the second floor has several patient rooms along with "day surgery" and a large waiting room.  It also has the "birth center."
Stella has been blessed to have a large amount of family around her this week.  This is partly due to the fact that she had six children but it is more a result of how she raised her children than how many she had.  The Crawfords are a close knit family who come to the support of each other whether the person in need is the matriarch, one of the children, or any of the grandchildren.  Stella taught them well.
I hope and pray that some of the local ladies who gave birth this week were able to look down the hall and observe the product of a Christian lady raising her family to love each other.
I am not a big fan of most of today's music and the "kids" today would tell me the song Lightning Crashes by the band Live is an old song since it came out in the '90s, but it is still a new song to me and I think some of its lyrics encapsulate what I observed on the second floor of the hospital this week.
 lightning crashes, a new mother cries this moment she's been waiting for the angel opens her eyes pale blue colored iris, presents the circle and puts the glory out to hide
lightning crashes, an old mother dies her intentions fall to the floor the angel closes her eyes the confusion that was hers belongs now, to the baby down the hall