AN ALMOST UNBELIEVEABLE DAY

It started out as just an average day with my plans to go to the doctor in a town about an hours’ drive away from my house and then I had plans to have lunch with my granddaughter and her roommate in the same town. Just a normal day in the day of a grandmother, a visit to one of many doctors and then a lunch date with two beautiful college students. Business as usual. I had been researching some information that I wanted to share with my granddaughter relating to a syndrome called PANDAs which is caused by undiagnosed or misdiagnosed strep throat when a person is small which causes attention disorders in the child and possible overactive imaginations which interfere with sleep which can manifest itself in night terrors as an adult because the person’s mind will not shut down in order to get a good night’s sleep. My granddaughter had declared psychology as her major in order to complete her degree and then get her master’s degree in occupational therapy. I thought that maybe she would be able to research the PANDAS syndrome in her psychology books. Her brother, one of my five handsome grandsons, had confided to me that he cannot learn sitting in a classroom because of his overactive mind and had also confided that his mind is overactive at night with fearful thoughts. I thought his sister would be interested in the PANDAS syndrome. Her brother’s mode of learning is hands-on with personal training. That results in very efficient memory retention in that grandson. That day I picked up my granddaughter and her roommate at their new quad college apartment and asked where they wanted to eat lunch, declaring that the cost was on me and we would go wherever they chose. My granddaughter informed us that she had been craving a hot dog for a long time and one of the sweet shops close to campus had delicious hot dogs similar to the ones at a unique small hot dog place in our town. I was a little disappointed, thinking that she would choose an expensive restaurant since I was picking up the bill. I wanted to treat them to something they could not afford. Acquiescing to her choice of where to eat, we loaded up in my car and found a place to park in front of the establishment. Upon entering the sweet shop/hot dog place, I was amazed at the similarity between it and the one in our town that serves good hot dogs, having the same stools with red plastic seat covers, a long counter bordering the kitchen area. The menu sign had the identical hot dog combinations as the ones with which we were familiar in our town. It was a little early for the lunch crowd and the place was empty, (divinely ordained), so I chose stools in the middle of the counter area and the three of us perched ourselves on the stools and proceeded to order our hot dogs with our individual combinations of additions. As the young lady who took our orders was fixing our drinks and hot dogs, I began to tell my granddaughter and her roommate about my research into the PANDAS syndrome. My granddaughter immediately proclaimed that that learning malady of having an overactive mind sounds just like her brother. She remarked over and over that it sounded just like him. She was very relieved to know that it was caused by the streptococcus bacteria which had been in his system so long when he was a child. He had had strep throat which had been diagnosed as the flu by two doctors before being properly diagnosed by another doctor many days later. Now we were thrilled at knowing the reason for his different learning style. He had refused to go back to college after one semester because of having a preference for one-on-one learning. By this time we were consuming our hot dogs voraciously. Suddenly the young lady who had taken our orders, the owner of the place, interrupted us and asked how old the young man is that we were talking about. We told her twenty-two. She started telling us about her brother who had had the same history and said that he had graduated high school, couldn’t make it in college, had worked construction and odd jobs and then found his niche. She said that he had gone to welding school and learned quickly because it was one-on-one/hands-on instruction. She told us that she is an RN and everyone in her family has college degrees and some have advanced degrees. She informed us that her brother makes more money as a welder than anyone in their family makes in their professions. As she finished her story, a man walked into the shop. It was the young girl’s father. She asked him to tell us about her brother to also encourage us about my grandson. He went into the same story, revisiting the background of his son, telling about his one year education in welding and that he makes more money than anyone in the family at 26, is married, has bought a house and new cars for himself and his wife. My granddaughter and I, and yes, her roommate, knew that we had been on a divine appointment. It was not a matter of happenstance that they had craved the specific hot dogs and that we had ended up there, hearing those words of encouragement from the young lady and her dad. They gave us faith for the future of our much loved family member. We left the sweet shop in amazement at the encounter. Divinely appointed? For sure! The miracles had only begun. I had offered to take the girls to Walmart to buy amenities for their new apartment. They roomed in a really nice quad with a large living room/dining room combination, a fully equipped kitchen. four bedrooms and two baths. It needed some homey touches. We drove to Walmart and the girls picked out towels, a toothbrush holder, three colorful throw pillows and a bright red shag area rug for the floor. Their eyes landed on a wall hanging with the same colors as the pillows so it topped off the purchases. The roommate said that she wanted to look for a plant for the apartment. I asked if she is a “plant person” and she said no, but she thought the apartment needed a plant. She ventured to the area of the store where the indoor plants are kept. Granddaughter and I looked at some other things before joining her in the same area. She was holding a small plant in a glass vase. It was darling, but not what I had imagined buying them. I tried to talk them into buying a large plant in a large container that would sit in the corner, adding to the ambiance of their living room. Both girls said they wanted that individual plant, not a large one. I held up other plants but both girls were insistent on the small plant, saying that it was just what they wanted. I finally agreed, even though I was disappointed in their reluctance to agree to my decorating influence. Upon arriving at their apartment the sweet roommate carried the small plant inside and placed it immediately on the window sill in the sun. My granddaughter and I placed the throw pillows on the couch and a chair and put the bright red shag rug under the coffee table. I noticed the time and announced that I needed to leave quickly in order to make it to my doctor’s appointment on time which was a few miles away. I left hurriedly and arrived at the doctor’s office right on time Later that evening as I was talking on the phone to my granddaughter she said, “Oh, Meme. You’ll never guess what my roommate named our plant.” Of course I couldn’t guess. “She named it Steve,” was the reply. Steve was my late husband’s name who had died two years previously. She said that she had laughed and laughed because the roommate didn’t know her grandfather’s name had been Steve, yet she picked out that name for the plant that they had both insisted on buying. It just looked like a Steve, I guess I suddenly remembered that I had gotten a glimpse at the small plastic stake in the plant on which was written the type of plant that it was. I told her to get the stake and read it. The kind of plant is an Angel Plant. My granddaughter remarked over and over again, “That’s just too weird,” since we have talked many times about her grandpop not being dead but being alive in the heavens that are around us. I told her, “No, it’s not weird. It’s awesome.” That is one time when the true meaning of the word “awesome” was appropriate for the occasion. We know that Grandpop Steve was with us for the occasion and had ordained it, along with God. The next day was Steve's birthday. In fact, the whole day was awesome, an unforgettable, unbelievable day for all three of us. Now I know what a true holy day is. It’s one that is completely ordained by God. We experienced a holy day that day and it was awesome, the true kind of awesome, one that inspires awe of God, the jaw dropping kind.