A long time waiting

My young bride is the reason we have saved and managed money over the decades. When I handled the check book and the budget we crashed and burned repeatedly, she is just better at money management and budgeting than I am....and prettier.

Each week I visit one of our members who has been in hospice care going on five months, unable to walk, extreme weight loss, no appetite, digestive problems, very weak, hard of hearing, dependent upon oxygen.

She wonders why she is being punished, and I seek to assure her this may be a test, but not a punishment. I also repeated my observation over the years of hospice care that no one can will the heart to stop beating or the lungs to stop working. They are genetically programed to fight for the last breath of air and live, which is good, until times like this when the sweet saint is no longer in this world but cannot cross to the next, week after week. I have no easy answers and pray for her attitude and for God to be merciful.

Nice visit with my dentist, lots of conversation and laughing with the staff whom I have known for almost two decades. Teeth cleaned, discussion of the reason why as we age some people have a tooth move out from the others, squeezed for space. This is happening to me and I may have to do something about it to save my smile.

Shared my retirement info and plan with Laura, she sees it, involves some savings goals, some time with less and then OK for the duration, dependent upon....health, dying, the American economy, the World Economy, postponing WWIII, identity theft, or any other of the things we cannot control. So its all "a Lord willing" plan.