Friendship Delivered
“My friend came to my house and brought me a whole week of food,” Laura Rogers said as we talked about how her husband “Roge” was progressing. He was in and had been a local hospital for more than a week and his progress was up and down.
“There hasn’t been a change in Roge’s condition over the past couple of days,” Laura continued.
Yet, she was about to tell me about many exceptions to that statement as she continued. There was a moment, she described as hopeful, when her husband of more than three decades had opened his eyes, focused on her face and clearly said, “home.” And, listening to heartwarming story after story from Laura’s lips, I can understand why he is anxious to return home. The Rogers have witnessed an outpouring of love and concern as a result of the crisis they’re currently facing.
It is as if Roge and Laura have received goodness from everyone in their neighborhood and beyond. I say beyond because I have received emails from friends-in-common expressing their support and offering assistance from a distance. And, distance defies the most common definition of neighborhood as well. I am now convinced that a neighborhood can be defined beyond the confines of a specific grouping of houses in a particular subdivision because the Rogers inhabit a neighborhood of friends independent of subdivision and city.
At the same time, their neighborhood defines the principle of loving your neighbor. I am quite sure that Laura has been a dinner guest every night her husband has been in the hospital. Some friends have delivered food to the Rogers’ home and some friends have stood on watch in Roge’s hospital room while another has taken Laura to a restaurant for a restorative meal. Even strangers have participated in restoration in another way.
This travail began in the parking lot of a mobile phone company when Roge suffered a brain aneurysm. With all of the chaos around getting an ambulance to transport him to the closest hospital no one present noticed that Roge’s wallet had slipped from his pocket. Luckily, someone happened upon it sitting on the asphalt not long after the ambulance left.
The wallet’s benefactor worked for a week to get it back into its familiar pocket, but had difficulty because she didn’t speak any English. Finally, after trying to figure out how to contact the wallet’s owner, she took the wallet to a local community bank, because she recognized the logo printed on one of the credit cards displayed on a building nearby. That bank branch employed a bilingual employee who listened to the story, looked up phone numbers for the Rogers and made calls to make a connection for the wallet’s return.
“What a miracle to have the wallet returned without one item missing,” Laura said with tears streaming down her face.
It is another example of how friendship has been delivered to Roge and Laura Rogers during their time of need. It’s shows how being a good neighbor transcends geography, language and personal familiarity.
Friendship can be delivered in many ways, even by those we don’t already know. It always provides welcome, beautiful change under difficult circumstances.
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I’m Lynn Butterfield, Real Estate & Lifestyle Expert and Television Host for American Dream TV in Northwest Arkansas. I’ve helped hundreds of Buyers and Sellers, as a real estate agent and Associate Broker with Coldwell Banker, to discover where and how they want to live and work; to achieve what I call Realesation™. That’s why I bring you American Dream TV, Both Sides of the Fence, About the Dish, Monday’s Warm Cocoa and Home by Design Magazine to stir your heart and mind. Contact me so I can join you along your own unique path of discovery.
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