A Missionary Mother's Day In Guadeloupe

I got to spend most of Mother's Day in a hospital in Guadeloupe. Not to worry -  it was all good, because I truly got to "Mother" on that day.  So here is my Mother's Day Story....It started very early 

( here's  the Traveler Palm beside our apartment building at sunrise.) 

One of our sweet sister missionaries, Sister Cruz, from Nevada, had not been feeling well for several days after having  just been transferred here from the island of Maritinique. She was extremely tired all the time and her legs kept giving out from under her.  Our mission medical advisor   ( on another island - St. Martin) advised her companions by phone ( she is in a threesome) to take her to the Emergency Room at the hospital.  The closest one to them is the largest one on the island, the Centrale Hospitale Universite in Point-a-Pitre.  They sat there with her for NINE hours in a  dimly lit, crowded,  hot and humid waiting room. When we called at 11:30 pm to see what was happening, and were informed she still hadn't been seen yet, we drove across the island to see if our presence might help.  

Just before we arrived, she was finally admitted to be examined. The nurses said that they would keep her there but that nothing would be done or decided until 6:00 am.  Her companions ( two very determined young ladies) wanted to stay with her through the rest of the night, so we went back to our apartment and returned at 6:00 in the morning.  Sisters Covey and Gomez were ready to go home by then!  I brought them  hot breakfast sandwiches, and we took them to their apartment to get some sleep.  We returned to the hospital to stay with Sister Cruz. It took us 30 minutes to find her room.  There was virtually no one there working and the little paper directional signs taped on the walls were peeling off.    We finally found her in her room, sitting up and smiling, though a bit  nervous.

After about an hour, a nurse came and told us we would have to leave.  I told her we could not leave our little missionary  there all alone. I don't know why she changed her attitude, but she agreed to let us sit on the metal chairs outside our patient's door. We sat there for five hours. ( Yep, we missed church.) We had a lot of time to think about the pros and cons of socialized medicine ( we are technically, after all,  in France.)   On the pro side - this was costing us almost nothing.  On the con side - there was black mold dripping from the ceiling . Actually, parts of the ceiling were missing. I won't even describe the bathroom.  

When we arrived at the hospital the night before - we thought it was abandoned. It looked like something from a horror movie.  There were no directional signs, the sidewalks were overgrown with tall weeds, and it was very dark.  We went inside where it was also dark and  no one was to be found.  Miraculously we found the emergency room ( partly by seeing people walking along the side of the road in the dirt to get there.) Of course, things looked much better in the morning...

Mmmm... maybe not so much.  A doctor finally came and decided ( thankfully) that Sister Cruz could leave.  An hour later, we were on our way and we took her back to our apartment for the rest of the day, where she slept for four more hours.

On Mother's Day,  all the missionaries get to 'skype' home ( normally,  they just email every week) so this call was going to be a bit awkward....( Hi Mom, I just got out of the hospital.  Yeah, they think it's the after-effects of the Zika virus I got from a mosquito bite a couple months ago - no problem.)  Of course, our mission president had already let her parents know what was happening.  Still, I felt badly for her mom, and let her know I was trying to partly fill her shoes.  I made her daughter and two young Elders ( I know that's oxymoronic) who  were also here to skype home, a very nice dinner and even baked chocolate cupcakes ( I imported ingredients from our last trip to St, Vincent).

So, Sister Cruz didn't have to be sent home from her mission. She told me she has been wanting to do this since she was sixteen ( she's now the ripe old age of nineteen!)   We have been back to the lovely hospital for more tests, with results pending at the end of the month.  She is back with her intrepid companions and managing okay. Here she is on the left with  Sisters Gomez and Covey. 

 

And I got to be a 'mom' on Mother's Day even though I am far away from our own children and grand children.  I've about decided that this is really what our mission - what everyone's life mission - is all about ... Caring for those who need you most whenever and wherever you might be.  The End.

This post is dedicated to our four children - Wallace, Wendi, Sarah, and Whitney  - who gave their mom and dad permission to run off to the Caribbean to  see if they could help make a little difference in the world. Love you tons, Mom and Dad