Christmas at Denny's

I took a day off from work on Friday, Dec. 10, 2010, and Carol and I left our home in Southern Pines, N.C., to drive to Raleigh. Suzanne, 32, the younger of our two daughters, was scheduled for surgery around midday.

We motored 75 miles up Hwy 1, turned left on Wake Forest Road and took a quick right into Duke Raleigh Hospital. I dropped off Carol at the Surgery/Registration door and left our Buick in a cold 3-story parking garage.

I joined Suzanne, Chad and Carol, sitting in an expansive lobby, which was not crowded. A large, beautiful Christmas tree decorated with oversized ornaments sat 30 feet from us. Suzanne held a “beeper” – the kind some restaurants use to let you know when a table is available.

One night, over a year ago, a pipe in Suzanne’s public school third-grade classroom leaked water onto her tiled floor. The next morning, she slipped on the wet floor and injured her left hip.

One doctor thought her pain came from a strain in her back and recommended exercises that aggravated her injury. After struggles with Workman’s Comp (workers compensation), Suzanne won approval to undergo an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scan, described as “the best way to see the inside the human body without cutting it open.” That procedure revealed she had a torn labrum in her hip. The labrum, as I understand, is a fibrous cartilage around the edge of a bone inside a joint. Dr. David Jones said he thought he could repair Suzanne’s damaged cartilage. He persuaded Workman’s Comp that she needed an operation.

We waited a long time in the hospital lobby. After a while, I put my hand on Suzanne’s shoulder and prayed for her. Her beeper soon vibrated and lit up. Time to go.

She walked alone to a “prep room,” a cubicle with a plastic curtain. We soon joined her – three loved ones huddled around a young lady lying on a hospital bed. A nurse anesthetist told us about the general anesthesia Suzanne would receive. Each of us gave Suzanne a kiss and returned to the lobby. (Later, after her operation, Suzanne emailed this message to Carol: “I thought of the song “I Will Rest in you” that you wrote, Mom, as I fell asleep for surgery. It was comforting.”)

Chad and I brought lunches from the hospital cafeteria to share with Carol in the waiting area. Afterward, a tall, thin, lonely-looking man we’d seen earlier walked past us. Carol asked him, “Do have a family member having surgery here?”

“My girlfriend is here to get an operation to tighten a muscle in her eye,” he said.

The 34-year-old man hailed from Fayetteville, N.C., and had close-cropped black hair. He seated himself to Carol’s left – two empty seats stood between him and her; I sat to Carol’s right. The man said he nearly lost his foot in an accident and “got on drugs” from taking medication for pain. He said he was 14 when his father returned home and surprised a robber. The intruder killed the father with the father’s “own gun.” The man said he got a girl pregnant when he was 15. Though her parents wanted her to abort the child, the girl birthed her baby.

“She’s 17 now,” he said of his daughter. “I see her.” He said he wanted to do right by that daughter and by another 6-year-old daughter he fathered.

“That’s good you want to stay in their lives,” Carol said. “I was 19 when I arranged to meet my father for the first time.”

Carol brought Christ into the conversation.

“I know what you’re talking about,” the man said. “I was saved when I was younger.”

“God wants your faith to be real in your life, now,” Carol told him. He gave her his name and address; she plans to send him an “envelope hug.”

Dr. Jones walked to the lobby and said he felt Suzanne’s surgery went well. Chad spent time with her in the recovery room, and she came to the lobby around 4:30 p.m., as I retrieved our car. Chad and a pale and weakened Suzanne headed to their Raleigh home.

Carol and I drove to a nearby Denny’s before beginning our trek to Southern Pines. The restaurant was tastefully decorated with red ribbons and greenery. Someone had wrapped its many framed pictures to appear as gifts. We heard Christmas music playing over a sound system. Carol ordered a breakfast meal. I got a turkey club sandwich. I used my cell phone to text-message these words to Suzanne: “I’m thanking God for your successful surgery.”

Sitting at a table in Denny’s, I felt the Spirit of Christmas.