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Notes for CYNTHIA ANN DODGE:
Spent Labor Day weekend 1997 in the hospital after having orthopedic surgery to the right ankle for a fracture/dislocation. The ankle now has two screws on the inside and a metal bar about 7 inches long up the outside of the ankle. This happened while trying to unstick a fishing line for her nephew. The creek bank was slippery. Not the recommended way to spend your summer vacation time!
Magic in the Moonlight
Published in the Fall 1997 issue of "Oatmeal & Poetry"
It was 3:30 A.M. as I paced the long, tiled hallway waiting for word from the surgeon. My child was on the operating table undergoing emergency surgery for a burst appendix. Through the stained and frost encrusted windows I could see the clouds covering up the moon and stars. My footsteps echoed hollowly in the cavernous, deserted hallway. I thought I was alone in that hospital waiting area, but as I turned to go back the way I had come, I saw an elderly gentleman at the water fountain. He was not very tall and his stance was kind of stooped over. He had a full head of snow white hair and a bright smile that lit up his whole face.
I had no idea where he came from. It seemed as though he just appeared out of thin air. He introduced himself to me as Ralph. "Fine it is, everything will be," he told me, "ye need not to worry." I asked him if he had ever had a child who needed emergency surgery? His answer was 'no,' but he assured me again that everything would be all right. I became upset and told him he had no way of knowing things like that, and to just butt-out of things that didn't concern him. The light went out of his eyes and he backed away from me as though he were frightened.
Just at that moment the clouds gave way and the moonlight shone through the stained and frosted windows. The designs it made on the white tile floor of the hospital hallway were breathtakingly beautiful. I couldn't explain it, but the beautiful display of moon light lifted my spirits and gave me hope.
Suddenly, Ralph was smiling again and coming toward me. He said to me, "It's glad I am that ye can see the magic in the moonlight. I know now for absolutely, certain, sure that everything will be all right with yer little un, what's the child's name?" I told him my daughter's name is Brandy and she's only six years old. He said, "anyone who can see the magic is sure to have only good things happen to them and their loved ones." As he prattled on I became aware of the odd way in which he was dressed and the funny way he had of turning a phrase. It occurred to me then to ask Ralph why he was in the hospital surgical waiting area. "Why I've come to wait with ye so that yer wouldn't be so scared," he told me. I asked him how he knew that I was there and the answer I got surprised me. "Well now, I be here 'cause I be Brandy's guardian angel don't ye know," Ralph said with a bewildered look on his face. "Didn't ye know about me before today? I've talked with Brandy several times before . . . she never mentioned me huh?"
Brandy had told me that she had a secret, invisible friend. I didn't think anything about it at the time, thinking it was just a phase that all kids go through. Ralph assured me that he was not a figment of Brandy's imagination; that he was always somewhere close by keeping watch over her. He also confided in me that I must surely have my own guardian angel if I could see the magic in the moonlight. Ralph said that most people do have guardian angels and just don't realize it.
He asked me to think about how many times in the past something that could have been awful turned into something great. As I thought about it, I realized that throughout my life there have been many situations that could have been really awful but at the last minute something always seems to turn the situation into a positive experience. Ralph told me this was my own guardian angel at work. He asked me to think about how wretched the world is, and to wonder how, without help, people would be able to get through each day. I began to understand what he meant and was all the more grateful for his being there with me in the hospital.
Ralph was absolutely right! Everything turned out fine. Brandy came home from the hospital after three days. I told her that I met Ralph while she was on the operating table and she didn't believe me, "Yeah right, Mom," she said. I just smiled and waved at Ralph as I walked
out of her room. I'm so glad to know that there really are guardian angels watching over us. Next time you see the moonlight shining in your window, look for the magic and maybe, just maybe, you'll meet your guardian angel.
Travel Jitters
Published in the Spring 1998 issue of "Oatmeal & Poetry"
Have you ever been so scared and nervous about something you felt like you were going to be sick? That is exactly how I felt the first time I rode on an airplane. It was not only my first plane ride but also my first trip overseas as a military wife. My husband had left to report to his new duty station in Germany four months prior. This left the job of getting things packed up and ready to go, and clearing living quarters as my responsibility. As a private first class, my husband had to be on a waiting list for housing. When housing became available it was time for me, my teen-age sister, and Christopher, my two-year-old son to make the journey on our own.
We were each allowed only one piece of luggage with a weight limit of forty pounds per piece. Deciding what to pack, and then packing what we needed to take with us for use until our household goods' shipment arrived took three footlockers. I waited until the very last minute to close them up because they were packed as tight as I could get them. My father-in-law had to sit on them for me to get them closed. I prayed the locks would not spring open and spill everything out. I could only hope I had made the right decision about what we would need while we waited for the rest of our belongings to arrive.
During the two weeks prior to our departure, we watched several movies on television about airplane mishaps. I realize now that this was just a coincidence, but at the time I felt like somebody was trying to tell me something. My father-in-law told me repeatedly we would be flying over the Bermuda Triangle and that there was every possibility our flight would be one that disappeared. This only added to my anxiety even though I knew he was just teasing me. Saying good-bye to family and friends and not knowing for sure when we would see them again was the scariest thing I had ever done in my young life.
We left Indianapolis International Airport and went to Charleston, South Carolina. Christopher and I both had problems with air sickness for the first half of the flight. I was thankful to find another military wife on her way to Germany on the same flight. If she had not taken us under her wing at Charleston, we probably would never have made it to Germany at all. At Charleston airport we had to claim our luggage and go by shuttle bus to Charleston Air Base. We were not told this at the travel office at Fort Benjamin Harrison. They just told us there would be a lay over at Charleston. Thank goodness military wives look out for each other! Once we were settled on board the Military Airlift Command plane at the air base, things calmed down. The rest of the trip from Charleston to Frankfort was uneventful.
When we finally touched down at Frankfort, I had the horror of getting through customs at a military air base with a two-year-old child and a teen-ager in tow. After successfully claiming our three footlockers, we waited in line for the customs inspectors. The person in front of us in line was an active duty soldier with one duffel bag. The customs agent made this soldier dump out his duffel bag and he was going through everything, even unrolling the man's socks. I was appalled! I knew if he was going to go through three tightly packed footlockers like that we would be there all day. I was afraid I would not even be able to get everything back into the footlockers if I had to empty them. Just as the inspector finished with the soldier in front of us, Christopher, my two-year-old son started fussing about having to "go potty Mommy." I was trying to quiet him but he kept getting louder and more insistent. Two-year-old children who are just recently potty trained can be very insistent when they need to go. We were getting a lot of sympathetic looks from the other people waiting in line, but there was no bathroom on our side of the customs gate. Trying to tell a child who has to go to the bathroom that you can not take him just does not work. Mommy is supposed to be in control and take care of things like that. The soldier in front of us had not even finished re-packing his duffel bag when the customs inspector looked at our footlockers and asked me, "Do you have anything in there you shouldn't?" I am sure he could tell by the terrified look on my face that this was a whole new experience for me. I did not want to open those footlockers; not because there was anything in them that should not be there, but because I was afraid I would not be able to get everything back into them. I shook my head no and stammered, "I don't think so." He just grinned and pointed us in the direction of the closest bathroom. He even helped me get the footlockers through the gate.
My husband was there on the other side of the gate waiting for us. Christopher was so excited about seeing his Dad that he forgot about having to go to the bathroom, but only for a minute. Dad's first job after giving everybody a big hug was to take the kid to the toilet. All the fear and the worry had been worth it to get our family back together again.
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