Me and Mike

  Today I drove to St. Mary's to pick up a disc of Dad's Brain MRI from 2/04/14 that Dr. Tarolli had requested. A fool's errand most likely, but what the heck.  I had called Medical Records earlier in the morning  to determine where the MRI was done because the location was not on the copy of the written report which I had picked up way back then.  Turned out it was done at St. Mary's and at my request they told me it could be picked up there within an hour. So several hours later I went to St. Mary's Medical Records Office, which was not where it used to be.
    I asked at the window for Medical Records and was told they no longer have them at St. Mary's because with St.Peter's Health System, all records will be at Samaritan. But wait!   When I said I was told only this morning that I could pick them up here at St. Mary's, the  helpful rep found the disc had been on hold for me behind the desk.  I didn't ask  how that came about. Mission was accomplished.
   The day was not yet done.  By the information desk, a man appeared, a person whom my mother and Helen would have called "a poor soul."  He had a Bible clutched in his hand and was telling everyone "I said a prayer for you."  He told me so, more than once, and I said I needed all the prayers I could get.  He said he went all around the hospital every day and said a prayer for everyone.  He attended St. Augustine's Church  every Sunday and lived in Assisted Living at the corner of Frear Park.  He asked if I was driving that direction and if I would give him a ride home. He said a prayer for me. My car was parked in the lot up a flight of steep stairs so I said I'd pick him up by the door, as he was mobility-impaired. I had a fleeting thought of just exiting the parking lot and heading home without him, but I looked down the hill and saw him standing there, trusting, holding his Bible.
     So I circled down and picked him up for the short ride to his home.  He said prayers for me, though I don't know what prayers they were.  And no, I was not concerned for my safety. I made sure to pat him down for weapons before he got in my car.