Your Care Is Precious
Author © Scott D. Zachary
“Which way is your office?
“To the left, first door on the right,” directed Dr. Perry.
“I should know where your office is by now. I live in a totally abstract world, programming all of these complex functions at remote places, many of which I’ve never been to.” I set my bag of show-and-tell goodies on one chair and sat in the other. “People are amazed at the physical things that I’m completely unaware of, but every once in a while, I notice things that nobody else ever minds.
“First of all, I want to say I am really glad you decided to stay on here at RiverValley Behavioral Health instead of leaving back when you were considering taking off to wherever.”
“Well, thank you, Scott; that means a lot to me.”
I reached into my bag and pulled out a box about the size of two cigar boxes stacked. “Bobbie and I put together a little thank-you gift.” I handed it to Dr. Perry, where she sat behind her desk.
“You didn’t need to ... thank you, Scott. Should I open it?”
“Of course.” I watched Dr. Perry as she figured out how to open the box. “I was going to mail it to you, and then I thought it might not seem appropriate.”
Dr. Perry slid the box flaps open and looked inside. “Ohhh!” She pulled out the blue and green scarf and held it up, beholding its frilly beauty. “It’s beautiful!”
I watched as Dr. Perry wrapped it around her neck. “Bobbie crocheted it. That’s what she does when she gets tired of hearing me go on and on; she pulls out her knitting or crocheting and partly tunes me out. Actually, I think that Bobbie enjoys working on the book as much as I do, most of the time.”
“This is so pretty! Be sure to thank Bobbie for me.” Dr. Perry looked in the box and pulled out the postcard from Clifty Falls Inn splashed with a dazzling bright-pink peony flower across the front.
“I was having trouble expressing my gratitude for your inspiration, and Bobbie suggested that I try my hand at writing Haiku poetry.”
Dr. Perry read the poem which I had Scotch-taped to the postcard:
Trussed upon the leaf
The simile found my eye
Your care is precious
“You’re going to make me cry.”
I smiled grandly. “All of the doctors here at RiverValley have inspired me greatly, but you have inspired me most of all.”
Dr. Perry started to close the box flaps. “There’s more,” I said.
“More?” She pulled out the boxed cucumber melon handmade fragrant bath soap and inhaled its sweet fragrance. “I’m overwhelmed.”
I watched her work to open the bubble wrap around the last gift. “While Bobbie and I were on vacation after my last appointment with you in June, we went exploring to find a gift that would convey my enormous gratitude for what you’ve done to enhance my life.”
Dr. Perry extracted a cute little ceramic wren perched in the center of a cupped gilded-glass maple leaf. “As soon as Bobbie showed it to me in the souvenir shop, I said, ‘That’s it!’ ”
Dr. Perry held up the token of my appreciation as she absorbed the magnitude of its significance.
“The poem is about that, and I’m the little birdie.”
“I caught that,” as she struggled to contain her tears. “Thank you so much, Scott.”
“Bobbie and I had fun picking everything out, and then she suggested the scarf. She made it ... but I picked it out,” smiling sheepishly.
I extracted my “Summary of Achievements and Plans” (see end of story) from my bag of goodies and handed a copy to Dr. Perry, keeping another for me to follow as she reads.
“I actually call this my ‘Waha List.’ ‘Summary of Accomplishments and Plans’ is too many syllables.”
“ ‘Waha,’ huh? I see you’ve been writing your stories again.”
“You’ll recognize the seventh title, ‘An Amazing Person.’ ”
“I remember that.”
“You’ll read that I hired Nicaraguan artist, Tomás Gutiérrez, to sketch illustrations for my stories. I took a box of multi-colored chalk with me on our mission to Rancho Grande, Nicaragua. I gave it to someone—maybe Tomás—to give to the children to draw on all the sidewalks in the elementary school where our medical mission team was stationed. I walked out a little later and discovered that Tomás had sketched a beautiful drawing of Jesus in the middle of the double-wide sidewalk that connected the two wings of the school. It was beautiful, beautiful! So, I’ve hired him, and he’s completed five sketches so far for my book.”
I observed Dr. Perry as she read down through my Waha List. “Congratulations on your nine years of sobriety!”
“Thank you, ma’am. I still haven’t gotten to a meeting to pick up my nine-year chip. I need to go to more meetings to encourage the beginners.”
“You’d be a great inspiration to them, Scott. And congratulations on six and a half years of not smoking, too. And zero debt—those are all major accomplishments.”
“Thank you.”
“Here we go—this is what I was looking for—your water project.”
“Mine and Bobbie’s ‘Clean Water Ministry’ has come a long way since the last time I saw you. Last June, I mentioned that I was dabbling with the idea of sponsoring and helping drill a water well somewhere like Rwanda. Since then, Bobbie and I have sponsored the drilling of two complete water wells through Life Outreach’s Water for Life Mission and sponsored two more in India through Alpha Ministries’ Living Water Project.”
Dr. Perry read where Bobbie and I had sacrificed our three-day decadent wedding anniversary weekend at West Baden Resort to pay for the second Alpha Ministries water well. She further read that we instead went for a lovely day outing at West Baden where we enjoyed a five-star lunch and a nap in the rocking chairs on their southern-style veranda. “So, you had a pretty nice anniversary outing, anyway?”
“Sure did. And that Sunday, Pastor Andrew Jit, the Missions Director at Owensboro Christian Church, asked me if I’d be interested in going to Water Treatment Technology training at WaterStep in Louisville in preparation for a clean-water Christian mission to East Africa sometime next year. I told him, ‘Absolutely!’
“A large group canceled its training at the last minute, so Claudia Daniels, WaterStep’s Director of International Partnerships and Missions, asked me when I would like to have my training. ‘You name the hour and day,’ she said, and I replied, ‘How about ten o’clock that same day?’
“I got intensive one-on-one training. Claudia taught me about sanitation and hygiene education, and their importance to overall health in conjunction with clean water. The Vice President and Director of Training and Field Operations, Kurtis Daniels, demonstrated how to install and operate their M-100 Chlorine Generator which can chlorinate—decontaminate—at least 10,000 gallons of disease-infested water per day, using only a 12-volt battery and table salt to make safe drinking water. Their training was awesome! Those folks at WaterStep are super-charged about all they are doing to provide safe drinking water to the poor and to spread the Word of God. WaterStep has provided safe drinking water to people in more than fifty countries. They currently have ninety-six active water treatment projects worldwide, with more coming online all the time.”
“I think God wanted you to have that one-on-one training. He knows how excited you are.”
“I like the way you think, Dr. Perry. Eighty percent of diseases worldwide are caused by contaminated water. I want to help put a borehole in that. At the end of my training with Kurtis, I gave him a check to cover my training, and then I gave him a much bigger check as a donation. He was stymied. I think he was fighting to hold back tears as he said, ‘Thank you, Scott. We can do so much with this! Wow!’ I replied, ‘That’s exactly what y’all do—Wow!’
“Kurtis told me that WaterStep goes to the interior of Costa Rica every July to establish water treatment facilities and to train the local people on sanitation and health hygiene. ‘Sign me up!’ I exclaimed. I have since paid for mine and Bobbie’s mission fees for WaterStep’s July mission to Costa Rica. I also told Claudia and Kurtis that I’d like to come back for a refresher course before I put their training to use. Kurtis said I would be welcome anytime. After signing up for the mission, Claudia told me that they will have preparatory training for our Costa Rica mission in the spring.”
Dr. Perry continued reading. “There’s a lot here!”
“It’s nice to have a good solid Waha List for the first time in a while.”
“I want to talk about this—you offered to donate a kidney to someone?”
“Yes, ma’am. Before each of the nine Christian medical missions that I’ve gone on, I sent out a prayer request to some 75 people listed in my contacts spreadsheet, and then I sent out a mission-results email after each mission. My friend Gladys is one of the few who always responded to those emails with encouragement. I haven’t been on a mission for a while, but I read a devotional that I wanted to share, so I emailed it to all my Christian contacts. Gladys responded and asked me to pray that she gets the kidney she needs. I was seriously thinking of becoming her donor. I called Bobbie, and we both decided to offer Gladys one of our kidneys. I replied to Gladys’s email, giving her our blood types: A-positive for Bobbie and B-negative for me.”
“B-negative is rare,” interjected Dr. Perry.
“One and a half percent of the population,” I confirmed. “Gladys bubbled over to me, saying ‘Oh wow…this makes we want to cry. I am so appreciative of just the thought. I am B-negative, so that would be you, Scott. It will be such a wonderful gift if you match – actually a gift of life. Many, many thanks for just the offer to even consider being a donor!’
“Unfortunately, I was denied due to my lithium medication which could degrade my remaining kidney’s function. I explained to Gladys that in order for me to substitute another medication for lithium, I’d have to get off of it and wait until I lapse into suicidal depression again before I could try other drugs to see if they work without serious side-effects. Before they tried lithium, I experienced severe reactions to two other medications, and I’m not going there again. Gladys was extremely grateful, anyway, that I would’ve even considered being her donor.”
Dr. Perry finished reading my list of accomplishments, glancing up and down the pages, she declared, “Wow, you can do all these things!”
I realized later that I missed my cue and should have responded with “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Instead, I reached into my bag of tricks and pulled out the story titled “An Amazing Person” and handed it to Dr. Perry. “You’re featured in this story, but not as much as you will be in the story after next. The next story will be titled ‘H2Oh’ which will be about mine and Bobbie’s Clean Water Ministry. The one after that will be titled ‘Your Care Is Precious.’ ”
Dr. Perry smiled knowingly as she began to read.
“I paraphrased a little when I wrote it, but it’s pretty close to our conversation last June.”
“It’s exactly what we said.”
“I really intended to humbly play down your comment when you said, ‘You’re an amazing person,’ but it didn’t come out that way when I responded with ‘I’ve got a whole lot of amazing to go, yet.’ I want to emphasize that the Lord is Amazing—He makes everything possible. I just get the fun of doing all these neat things you see here on my Waha List. And Bobbie makes a lot of these things possible, too. She pays for nearly all of our living expenses. Every once in a while, Bobbie tells me how much money she needs to cover our costs, and I usually top it. That’s how I’m able to donate so much. I’m really good at giving away everything, one of the best!”
Dr. Perry read on while I meandered. “Where I’ll be going in East Africa will likely be very dangerous, but not as dangerous as North Korea. I’ve played with the idea of setting up a mission to that little village—Khasan, Russia—near that tiny strip of land that borders North Korea. Then during the mission, I’d take a little hike across that railroad bridge and introduce myself: ‘Hi, there! Please take me to your gulag.’ Of course, I’d have to learn a little Korean first.
“Think about it: If I truly believe what I think I believe, then I wouldn’t have a problem with doing that. I’d be able to share the Gospel with people who would never, ever have the opportunity to hear about the Lord Jesus Christ.” I paused. “I didn’t say I was going to do that, but if you follow the news at all, where I’ll going in East Africa is pretty close to being that dangerous.”
“Yes, pretty close. You are an amazing person, Scott.”
“Thank you, Dr. Perry. I get excited when I’m going to be visiting you.”
“I get excited, too, when I see you on my calendar. I can hardly wait to hear your excitement about all your accomplishments and your goals for the future.” Dr. Perry walked around her desk and extended her arms. “I hope you don’t mind...”
“Not at all.”
We hugged.
Dr. Perry walked me out of their offices as they had long since closed shop. She unlocked the door for me, and I stepped out into the hallway of the Cigar Factory Mall.
“You really are amazing, Scott!”
“Thank you, Dr. Perry. You all have had a big hand in that.”
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
I wonder if anyone saw me pointing at the centerfield bleachers as I floated out the front entrance of the Mall. Regardless, this memoir that took place last Monday, November 19, 2018, rates in the top ten most memorable occasions of my life. Maybe the top five.
Click here to read the conclusion of “Your Care Is Precious”
excellent tribute , enjoyed the read
never stop writing
m
You are going all out, hiring Gutierrez to illustrate your book! Why don't you place some of those illustrations on some of these stories? It's okay if you want to hold back. Just a suggestion.
I am all for providing clean water to the world. It is also necessary for these people to know that their disposal practices need to be clean, as well. The majority of plastics reaching our oceans are coming from some of the poorest parts of the world. For example, bottled water given to people to keep them healthy, may end up with the plastic bottles thrown in the rivers and ending up in the ocean killing the ecosystem of the world. I have given all my life, knowing that I might be in need at any time. But, except for the Salvation Army, I do not give to Christian organizations that have a big proselytizing part of their giving to others--strings attached.
I'm also adverse to training. Humans are unique because we learn so easily. Forcing people to follow strict routines like computer programs, flight checklists, and behaviorally training animals to do tricks, is adverse to human ingenuity. You, probably the most ingenious person I've known, realizes that. I prefer that humans are educated and given the option to change procedures and techniques for the better and not be tied to strict training rules that quickly become obsolete, requiring more expensive training. I would suggest that you use educating rather than training wherever possible.
It is wonderful that Bobbie and you offered to give a kidney to Gladys. It is nice that we have two kidney[s] (not kidney's--the possessive) to give one and still be able to function. Two years ago, my cousin gave her kidney to her husband who had been suffering with kidney failure for many years. Both are healthy and happy today.
Ron