Journal of a Living Lady #199

 

Nancy White Kelly

 

 

 

There are threes heavens: the immediate heaven where birds and planes fly; the celestial heaven where the moon and stars reside; and a third heaven where God lives. If you don’t believe me, take it up with Paul or John.

 

Thanks to the surprising generosity of a devoted reader, we are airborne. Buddy and I are on our way to the Holy Land. This dream trip, which I wrote about in February, has twice been postponed due to the Iraqi war. We should be landing soon at LaGuardia Airport in New York where we will change planes. Then on to Tel Aviv.

 

It is quantum leap from hospice to Jerusalem. Looking at a picture taken several months ago, nobody would believe that this person is me. I even have a problem relating to the lady in the photograph.

 

Steroids made be look like a bloated blimp holding tightly to a four-legged aluminum walker. Chemotherapy robbed me of every speck of hair. Radiation to my spine burned my esophagus. My voice became gravelly and hoarse.

 

Today I look human again. I can walk. I can talk. Most notably I can breathe without a canister of oxygen strapped to my side most of the time. Oh, how wonderful!

 

Healed? Depends on how you define it. No matter how many miracles or remissions, it is inevitable that life on this earth will eventually end for us all. I prefer to think of my healing as a temporary extension of life beyond human explanation. A God thing.

 

We hope these are friendly skies. But, if Buddy and I are blown out of the air before we land, neither of us have any complaint with God. He created us, placed us on earth for a season, and will take us back when He is ready. No doubt that this Holy Land trip that we are embarking on today will be a distant second to that ultimate Holy Land trip in the future.

 

In the meanwhile, hubby and I are pinching ourselves. We are literally on our way to Jerusalem. While there, Buddy would like to meet Netanyahu. That is about as likely as me having tea with the Queen.

 

So, my dear friends and readers, this is official notice. Buddy and I will be gone a couple of weeks. I should have plenty of tales to tell when we return. Please don’t call the editor or publisher asking why the Sentinel left out the Journal of the Living Lady. They didn’t. For sure, please don’t call my doctor to ask if I have expired.  Believe it or not, that has happened more than once.

 

“Fasten your seatbelts,” the captain says. I would, if only I could find that extender.

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nancyk@alltel.net