Her Homecoming...

Job 19:19 All my inward friends abhorred me: and they whom I loved are turned against me.

It was a blazing hot summer, but day after day we got closer and closer to grandmother coming home.  I’d watch as Gus, her big, built, strong black man was working her legs and arms. You have to understand something here, my grandmother grew up in an era where in her warped mind thought, that black people were lower life forms. I have never had a problem with people of a different color. I thought God did beautiful art work when he created humans all of a different hue.

But grandmother grew up with a strong hate for everything including, people of color! But here Gus was touching her and she’d call me aside as he went to get the stair climber ready, “He’s quite nice, isn’t he?” For the first time in a long time, my grandmother blushed!

Ps. 147: 3 He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.

She was learning to trust the black mans strength, (the term African-American didn’t become politically correct for a few years after that). She had a chance to see for herself, that it isn’t the color that makes a person bad, its their actions. Grandmother for three months couldn’t wait each day to see Gus! I was there as she took her first step, and I knew it wouldn’t be long now.

Back home, decisions were being made for her, “What are we going to do with Mother? She’ll need 24 hr. care! She’ll need medicine, and most of all, she’ll need a bathroom built on the first floor, a daybed; things to make her life bearable, once she gets home.” Yes siree, they were on the ball and spending money like water. The bathroom was being built and as with all of my uncle’s projects, it was slow going! Yes he was being paid, so of course, he milked every minute of every day.

I continued my daily routine of visiting her, going to therapy with her, and did lots of things for her, that only women can do. One time she had slid down the bed and needed to get moved up, not wanting to bother the nurses she asked if Vince could do it, “Boy he lifted me like I was a feather.” There it was, the blushing face I’d come to know and love.

Ecc. 3:3 A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

The day arrived for her to go home. Small problem, the house was not ready for her. Shocker there huh? My aunt said that she could stay with her, but getting her there (she lived outside the city in a single house dwelling). Now lets see, who could do get her to my aunts, up the steps and safely tucked in? Lets get Joni and Vince!

The day was one of tears and joy, because believe it or not, I had made quite a few friends while she was in the PT Hospital. I’d visit with Mr. John, give a big hello to all the ladies, even the nurses were happy to see me everyday, so the release date would be bittersweet. I’d never see them again. My aunt thought that I had developed a crush on Gus, and that is why I was crying, but she did not know ME, the compassionate hearted Christian woman. She only knew lil joni, and I would always be seen as that. She hadn’t gotten to know those people like I did, She visited once a week, if that.

Jer. 17: Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for thou art my praise.

My family knew how to cut me and didn’t care of the bloodshed, as long as I served their purpose. I took it because of my duty to my Lord, and my love for my grandmother. I would not let her down like her kids had let her down for so many years.  I would be there for her through thick and thin.

We got her to my aunts house and it was a few months before she came back to her own house, I went down and cleaned the entire place for her. We had it ready and waiting for her and it was *I* who helped get her into the house. Now..lets see..she had no one to stay the night, so plans had to be made. She wanted me to stay, and never having spent one day away from my home in my life, I stayed. I had been on this road with her all along so it only seemed right.  For a price they said... My goodness they (they, meaning my aunt and my grandmother) would not let me do anything without handing me money, even if I said no I didn't want it, my grandmother insisted! A twenty here, a twenty there, until I was under their claws and they knew it.

Everything changed...  and not for the better.