Gotta Hand it to You

We had an appointment on Friday morning with an orthopedic surgeon concerning the tingling sensation in Paul's left hand. He has had it since the accident and has mentioned it several times, especially when someone has held his hand. The tingling was up in his forearm, but is now just on the top of his hand, affecting his thumb and the next 2 fingers. He said he really notices it when he touches the top part of his hand and when he plays the guitar.

The doctor had an x-ray taken and there is nothing visibly causing a problem and he feels certain that the nerve is slowly regenerating itself since the tingling used to be all the way up the forearm and is now in the hand only. He hopes that the nerve will continue to heal completely, but that surgically there would be nothing he could do if the nerve does not. If this is as good as it gets, it is still very good because the muscles are still functioning very well and nothing is actually affected by it, other than the tingling sensation to Paul. It feels like when you lay on your hand while sleeping and is numb, and then as the blood starts to circulate again, there is that uncomfortable tingling sensation. Worst case scenario - Paul will have to get used to that feeling and work through it. His ability to play the guitar will not be affected, as his muscles are not impaired in any way. The doctor is hopeful that since it has recovered this well, it will continue to finish healing and it is just a MATTER OF TIME. (We KNOW that one!)

Friday night we got together with Rick, Helen and Jonathan over at Jerry's house to play a game of Scene It. It is a trivial pursuit type game about movies. It is played through the TV and it is so much fun. There was some intense competition going on that night. Every single Fidero son is highly competitive and anyone who knows them will agree! They were all on the same team that night and of course, won by a landslide. There was no living with them after that...........smile. I mentioned to them that apparently, SOME people in that room were possibly spending too much time watching movies!

Saturday, Paul had a good day and helped St. Stephen's Outreach ministry get food downtown to the poor on the streets. Jerry's mom, Judy, cooked all day and then Jerry, Frank (Jerry's dad), Paul, James, Michael, Jon and I got it packed into the cars to take to the church. At the church, Jerry and the boys got it into the church van and headed downtown with Rick and Helen. They delivered hot meals to 33 people and over 30 bagged lunches were handed out at a different location. There are 4 teams that make up this ministry and they are responsible for cooking, packing and delivering about 35 hot meals and 35 bagged lunches on their assigned week. Fr. Paddy started this program years ago and food is taken down to a location where a large number of people live under an abandoned bridge. These people know there will be food handed out each week and have come to depend on it. They have told the ministry members that other churches will bring food once or twice, but only St. Stephen's has come consistently each week for over 6 years. Jerry said that Paul has really been touched by these poor people and that he said he would pray for them during the week. I was so glad that Michael and James were also available to help. It is important for them to see and appreciate what they do have and to learn to share their wealth. It also kept them from sitting around WATCHING MOVIES!

Sunday started out very slowly for Paul. He had a very bad headache and didn't go to Mass with us that morning. He decided to go to the 6 PM Mass that evening. We were able to go to Joseph Tarantino's engagement party and Paul had a really good time. He walked in ahead of us and went straight to the back yard and started to visit with those he knew. He was very independent about it all. There was a woman there that I had not met before and she introduced herself to me. She is Joseph's Godmother and she wanted to let me know that she had turned in Paul's name at their church and that he was being prayed for by members of their church. She told Paul that there were so many people he didn't even know who were praying for him. He thanked her and said the prayers were working and that he needed them to keep praying!

Paul left after about an hour since he had to go to Mass. He left with his Aunt Beverly and the rest of the family got to stay for a little longer. We were very glad he was able to attend this event, as the Tarantino's have been our friends since Paul was in grade school. Jonathan was Paul's first friend after we moved to Lilburn. He didn't do well when we moved and it took him a couple of years to get over the hurt of having to move away from his dear friend Nathan Rose. Jon and Paul became friends with Joseph and Jonathan and it helped them adjust to their new schools. Later, Meredith Tarantino started to work at the same company as Beverly and I, so we have all been very close since then.

On Friday I was reading from a little leather-bound prayer book that my mother gave me a couple of weeks ago. It was given to her by a seminarian back in the early 1950’s.
Paul and I were waiting for the doctor and I just opened it and started to read.
The book is titled, ‘My Daily Bread’ by Fr. Anthony Paone, S.J. of the Confraternity of the Precious Blood. It opened to chapter 34 – Words of Consolation. Talk about timely! I always like to read those.

“ My child,
No labor, no suffering, no penance or prayer should discourage or sadden you. What you do for My sake will help you far beyond your fondest dream.
Your earthly hardships and trials are rapidly passing away. The longest life on earth is short. Only eternity is unending. Bear your difficulties, troubles and sufferings with patience. I will relieve you as soon as it is good for you. (Yes, I noticed it doesn’t say as soon as possible…..)
Whatever you endure on earth, is a very small price to pay for the Kingdom of Heaven. When you arrive in My heavenly kingdom, you will see how truly My Apostle Paul spoke when he said that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come.
Put yourself in My hands and strive to be as independent as you can of your human needs and of human consolations. Bring your joys and sorrows to Me.
Make Me your best friend and your closest companion.
As long as you go through your labors and hardships in my company, you will not find them too hard.”

I sat thinking about this reading throughout the day and did find so much consolation.
As it turned out, that night, after everyone had left Jerry’s house, Paul told me that he wanted to give me something he had ordered for Mother’s Day and it only arrived that day. He gave me a sculpture of the Blessed Mother cradling the Infant Jesus in her arms. The Infant Jesus is holding a strand of her long hair in his hand as he looks at her. Paul told me that he knows he is not an infant but that he feels that way about me. He knows how much I love him and I show it with all that I do for him. He feels that protected. He wanted me to know that and when he saw the sculpture that is immediately what he thought about. So he ordered it. I was overwhelmed with joy and he and I both cried.

The greater joy was later when I was talking with him after he got into bed. He told me that he and Jerry had been able to pray the Stations of the Cross while they were at St. Stephen’s, picking up the sculpture. He has not been able to do that in a long time and he said it was so terrific to be back in church praying like that again. He said it really helped him remember how much Jesus suffered for him and he was feeling better about all his pain. He said he needed to be reminded about it. I got the prayer booklet and read him what I had opened the book to that morning and said, “ I think Jesus had that sculpture delivered in HIS time, as it brought your suffering in line with His. And this prayer I read this morning is exactly what I think He wanted you to hear tonight.” While my earthly hands tend to Paul physically, Jesus is asking for Paul to put his life into HIS hands. And we are all called to do the same.

“My Jesus,
With eyes on You, my risen King of glory, let me go through the darkness of earth as one who looks beyond it.”
Love,
Jon and Rebecca

(Once again, I have a number of pictures to post from the weekend. They will be posted later this day.)