(Ray’s Note: As I talk about my friends and their extraordinary gifts, I’ll be using names that I think fit them, but these are not their real names.)

So Little Time

It was striking to me every time I walked in to Millicent’s room at the Kingsway Arms assisted living community.

There were pictures of smiling young children in frames on her dresser. On the wall there were drawings in crayon. There was a Christmas card displayed on a small table, and next to the card was a wedding picture. Hanging prominently on the wall was a plaque which told the story of Millicent’s distinguished career – service over four decades to five different college presidents – and her astonishing gift to the college she served.

The smiling young children on the wall were my children; the pictures covered about six years.

The crayon drawings on the wall had been sent to her by my kids.

The Christmas card, still standing on the table though my visit was in April, was from my family.

The wedding picture was from my wedding in 1990; my visit this day was the first really warm day in April of 2001. I no longer worked for the college that Millicent has so generously cared for.

Although I still came to see Millicent, these days she did not recognize me at first. This day was no different. She showed me each picture and each drawing as if she and I were seeing them together for the very first time.

Then she told me the story behind the plaque, eyes bight with tears as she remembered the party that was thrown in her honor. I interrupted her at this point and said, “and do you remember walking down the stairs with President Williams on one arm and me on the other?” She smiled a huge smile, and now she would make me tear up as she grabbed my arm tight and said, “Oh, of course I do! And I said, ‘shall we dance?’ What a wonderful day!” And Millie was back.

She had no family left, save her family from the college. The staff of Kingsway Arms told me that my visits were now the only visits she received (and since I had moved to the area, the college knew that I was going and I kept them informed).

Sometimes we take time for granted. There’s really so little of it in the 100 or less years God gives us. So this friendship with Millicent and the time we gave to her, in retrospect, may have been some of the most precious minutes of her life. And the minutes she gave us changed ours.

Millie passed the next year. And as they took the photos down, and the drawings from the walls, there was a reminder there. We have so little time; remember to spend some of it in unconditional, perhaps unconventional ways, on those who need it most.