Forgotten No Longer
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5/27/2008
Eddie came to our church a few times but he was a hurt man, and especially hurt by his past experience in church. When I rang to say I was coming to see him he would put on his best clothes although this was a real struggle as his movement was very painful - it was something special to him. When I left after visiting him we would pray together for Eddie knew Jesus, better in fact than me, I felt - as I would discover.
One day Eddie rang me. He was upset but calm. Some hooded men had come and forced his backdoor open with a crowbar at dusk. As he sat helplessly in his wheelchair, they took everything he owned that was of any value. He pleaded with them (and they consented) to leave his hearing aid batteries. "Jesus was with me" he told me bravely. "Iwasn't afraid." One Saturday I went to see Eddie. On the way I had a sudden inspiration. I would go into the discount shop and buy him some cakes. He was overwhelmed. "Did you know it was my birthday?" he said.
On a dark winter evening, I rang Eddie. He didn't answer. I tried again the next night ... again, there was no reply. Eventurally I got hold of the warden of the old people's sheltered accommodation where he lived. "I'm very sory" she said, "Eddie has passed away." I went to the crematorium. There were very few people at the service - it hardly did justice, I thought, to one of God's forgotten ones. At the end the vicar asked if anyone would like to pray. I took myself by surprise and cried out, "Thank you, God, that you that Eddie is Yours and has gone to be with You."
Eddie: forgotten in his life, maybe, but certainly no in the next.
This article first appeared in modern Jesus Army Streetpaper, used by permission. www.jesus.org.uk |
Eddie was crippled with arthritis, incontinent and in his eighties. He had never been married, never had any children and had no family in Nottingham. He once told me that he didn't get visitors and that's when I decided I would adopt him; I would become his daughter.