6 days left to live...

On Wednesday, September 28th, I went to deliver lunch to Apolonia as usual-

but little did I know she had only 6 days left to live...

 

One of my very first blog posts was about Apolonia.

She was the first abandoned elderly person I that I found back in April 2015

with whom I first started my program for the "LEAST".

Apolonia was born with deformed feet (she has no ankles) 

and this left her as an outcast in society...
she never went to school and she never married.

After her parents died this presented a problem:

who was going to care for Apolonia?

She had no husband, no children (thus no grandchildren)

and unless her nieces and nephews were heroic saints,

no one cared about her.

Thankfully, Apolonia did have a heroic niece, Mari Cruz,

who would check on her throughout the week to bring her food

and look out for her to the best of her ability.

(Below: Mari Cruz pictured helping Apolonia)

 

Well...back to September 28th-

I had gone to deliver Apolonia's lunch as usual but instead of finding her in her room,

I found her back by the washing area sitting on a cinder block.

Now Apolonia didn't speak much spanish

and I sure don't speak the Mayan Indian dialect,

so communicating with her had always been interesting.

The week prior she asked me how I was doing

and I gave her a thumbs up and said "utz!"

(which in the dialect means "good!")

All of the sudden after I did that, 

Apolonia's face dropped in surprise and she said: "Usted toma?!"

(which means "You drink?!")

(Apparently giving a thumbs up sign can be interpreted that you hit the bottle!!!)

I had a good laugh but despite my efforts to communicate,

I'm not quite sure if she still thought I was a raging alcoholic. 😉

Anyway...back to September 28th.

I found Apolonia sitting on this cinder block, wincing in pain,

and from the little Mayan that I know, I understood that she had a hernia.

I called her niece, but I was told this was normal and that all would work its way out.

It was so hard to leave Apolonia in the condition she was in.  

I thought: How can God allow so much suffering?!

Why was this woman given the life she has had?

By Sunday, Apolonia's niece told me that she was not doing well at all...

that we had to do something or else she was going to die.

Great.  

What can we do?!

I have already brought her to the hospital twice and the doctors say she has nothing.

Unfortunately I can not take people into my home 

and assisted living facilities are nonexistent here in Guatemala.

We prayed and it dawned on me...is she baptized?

No.

So, we called the parish priest and he said if she had not requested baptism

to leave things be for now.

So, Mari Cruz and I decided to go to her house at 9 pm to assess the situation...

and truly, Apolonia was NOT doing well.

We examined her and she had a horrible rectal prolapse.

She was in agony and there is no way we could leave her there for the night.

We called the local hospital to come get her with the ambulance.

The doctor on call said she would need major surgical repair and

being that she was almost 80 years old and without children to care for her,

there was no way that surgery was an option.

Thankfully the hospital let Apolonia stay there until 

the extended family could decide what to do.

(Above: Visiting Apolonia with my mother in January)

The following day, the family decided to let Apolonia stay in the hospital

on comfort care measures until she passed.

They asked for baptism and so I called the priest to see when he could come.

We were talking about doing the baptism the following morning

but at the last minute, he decided to go that evening and baptize Apolonia.

At around 8 pm Apolonia was baptized 

and the following morning I got a phone call from the hospital saying she had died at 6:15am.

So why this whole story?

Because in life, there are so many things we see that just don't make sense.

To our eyes, the situation is just hopeless or painful or pointless.

But there IS a deeper reality that most times we just don't see.

Love is real...it is alive...and it is a power and a force constantly working

in this world to bring about goodness, truth, and beauty.

We just tend to get in the way a lot.

The week previous all I saw was an abandoned old woman

who was rejected by society and plagued with physical illness and disgrace.

6 days later, I saw a woman who was loved by God so much that 

He moved those who were docile enough 

to help her be brought to a place where she could have a peaceful and holy death.

Apolonia died within ten hours of being baptized...

how could I not see beauty in that?

We had no idea she had such little time left...

but God knew.

I pray that this blog post comes as a consolation

to anyone who feels they are abandoned or unnoticed in this world.

To those who feel like their life has no meaning

or that no one is impacted by who you are and what you do.

Just place yourself in the hands of the Father.

He's got us all under His loving gaze and if we just trust,

we will see that He is working everything for the good.

Through Apolonia's life, I learned that God is not glorified by what we do for Him, 

but rather how we let Him love us and show His Love in our lives.