An Unforgettable Birthday

Yesterday was my birthday.

For the first time after a long time, I had to spend my special day alone.
I went for a regional gathering to some distant place, where I had to extend my stay for another day unexpectedly.
I missed the first hug from my H on my birthday.
The giggles of my lovely kids when they try to hide their thoughtful gifts in the early mornings would be the best thing I used to enjoy on my birthdays. This emptiness in my room killed me so much.
Not to mention the warmth of my mom's hugs and wishes.
Although there were so many people staying in the hotel with me, I felt so lonely inside.
The virtual wishes and greetings via FB, TP, and whatsapp actually made my day though. But that's different from the warmth you feel when you are with your people.

To kill this boredom and sadness, I chose to walk to the nearby church. It was so early in the morning, and unusually I too got up early yesterday.
There, I saw a couple of elderly people - perhaps, bored to death just like me, were roaming here and there inside the church that time.

The absolute silence at the God's home filled me with immense peace and happiness. I felt the much needed courage to face my day with utmost faith in God.

While I was about to get out of the church, an elderly woman approached me. She seemed so weak, tired and in so much pain.
She volunteered to introduce herself, and said "I am a helpless widow". She went on to say that "I am childless, and my H left me nothing except some petty loans here and there". She seemed to be an educated, middle class woman with so much pride though.
Perhaps, that's what stopped her from looking for helps, despite of being helpless for long.
From what she spoke, I got to know that she was staying at one of her friend's house and her "staying" has caused rifts due to obvious "monitory" reasons - Typical middle class problems.
Looks like, she doesn't have any options to go to. At the same time, she can't continue to enjoy her free stay at her friend's place either.

She said, " I would be the first one to come to this church daily, and would stay here until they close it at night. Many a times, I would just save my days with water, as I have no money to buy food. But sometimes, I do receive some food from the people's offertory. She added, "I always ask Jesus to help me, and I am sure he will pave me a path".

I don't know why she chose me to say her story. But, that day, I had all the patience to sit and listen to whatever she shared with me.
I felt like listening to someone who has no one to talk to.

After sometimes, I gave this woman some money and left the place.

Soon after, I forgot this matter, as I was very busy with the wrapping up of our regional gathering.
At the end of the meeting, we had this formal hand-shaking and biding good byes to the participants representing different agencies.
During this, I happened to interact further with a director of an international NGO, who sponsored our community outreach.
During our chat, he casually mentioned about the work they (the INGO) carry out in this region through various local NGOs such as HIV/AIDS response, rehabilitation of drug users, School drop out programs, AND SUPPORTING ELDER'S HOME.
His last word brought back all the details of the long chat I had with that elderly woman in the church - whom I have almost forgotten.
I took note of all the details of that "elder's home" from that gentleman, and visited there immediately to see how I could help this woman.

The elder's home was more friendly than I expected - Thanks to that gentlemen's contact.
They made me sign a few papers, and to enter into some monitory commitment on a monthly basis for this admission.
On my way back, I grabbed some cloths, and other necessities for the woman to use.

At around 5pm, I went back to the church hoping to locate that woman - whose name or contact details were unknown to me.
Thankfully, she was there - Knelt down & silently conversing with God with hope.
That made me wonder about the miraculous ways of how God's plans work.

I touched her, and explained all the arrangements to her.

She was clueless initially, and then thanked me. I am not sure whether she understands my efforts after all.
She must have been extremely lucky to have a place in such a home, that too for free. She thanked God repeatedly as if she knew this will happen.

We quickly rushed to her friend's home in the next street, and grabbed all her things to be dropped at the elderly home.

Me and my driver did not have the time to revisit our decision or act anything more in this regard. Because we were already late for our trip back to home.

It was nearly mid-night when I reached home. All my family (including my little children) were awake to celebrate my big day upon my arrival.
We only had a few more mins to end the day, but we ended it with full of contentment.

It was, and will be an unforgettable birthday in my life.

 

Thanks @Harini73

What inspired me to write this snippet is the plans of God - and how that works.

Basically he made me stay back at the remote place on my birthday, and brought me to the church to kill the boredom due to the loneliness on my birthday.
He made that woman to approach me despite of having few other people in the church. But she did not ask me any helps. She did not request me to find a place to her.
And imagine, the meeting I had with that NGO director.
See... how the twist happened here.
Unless he disclose the fact that his organization was sponsoring for an elder's home, I wouldn't have thought thought about this elderly's women's homelessness. Because we see plenty of homeless people on a daily basis, but we don't go about to help all of them, right?
And, thankfully that women remained at the church when I returned there. Had she been gone outside, I wouldn't have been able to locate her that day.
So, everything happened according to God's plan only.

As a believer, I reassured my faith in God after this incident. I am hopeful, that my God will have a plan for all my troubles, and somehow he is working on them.....