"I have staked my whole eternal destiny upon a savior I have never seen with these eyes," he said.
Now it's the next day, Friday. Hello Sergeant! This is a pun that only people over 50 will get. If you get it, please leave a note in the comments and a free gift will be delivered to your doorstep.
Jack can quote the Bible verbatim. Not surprising, since this 75-yo man is a retired pastor. We speak for an hour and a half. I lie on my red couch, where I have recovered from a coughing spasm from talking and eating nuts at the same time.
Just heard on the news that 2 oz of almonds per day can lower your weight by three lbs. Why the heck didn't you tell us how much 2 oz is? Dyou think I'm still in Mrs. Hess's fifth grade class at Mercer Elementary?
On the radio, there was a report that one man has been declared CURED of AIDS, due to a bone marrow tplant. Two other guys are probly cured, said a Harvard doc, but more studies need to be done.
Awesome!
How come no one studies this gal, sitting quietly at her laptop amid whirring fan, to see why I'm cured? AND if there are others like me. My former BF Simon was also cured but he's too dead to be studied.
So Jack and I are talking into the night. An hour and a half to be exact. One story after another. He was convinced at the tender age of 5 that Jesus was his savior. His parents were not religious but he used to attend services with a neighbor. His wife Joan also accepted Jesus at the age of 14.
They still pray in the morning and in the evening before bed. Joan had gone up to sleep, the only time she has surcease from that most terrible pain in the world - depression - and Jack will join her in the bedroom after he gets off the phone from me.
He and his wife have tried everything - and I mean everything - to get her out of her horrific depression.
TMS? I asked on Thursday morning when they came to our Daytime Meeting of New Directions at the Giant.
Yep, he said. From Dr Hartman at Philmont Guidance. 31 treatments, I believe, not covered by insurance.
Silent rant on our misguided greedy insurance system where huge profits are bolstered by denial of care.
Jack and Joan certainly won my heart at the meeting and I knew that nite when I came home from driving Scott to the train in the pouring rain that I was gonna call Jack.
His wife can barely speak.
When I dropped Scott off, the thunderstorm had stopped, but I was listening to a suspenseful audio about a Vietnamese POW who had just escaped into the jungle.
Depression is a brutal illness. In my bipolar days, my depressions were short, maybe six weeks at the most, but Joan's has lasted a year and a half.
Her favorite time of day is Bedtime....the only way she can escape.
She is seeing Waldfogel of AMH who is trying various and sundry. I suggested the MAOI's....been there, done that...also the Seleg patch....untried....and then I brot up Deplin, the megadose of folic acid which helped my childhood friend Nancy.
"The Lord has a purpose for all this," Jack insisted. And who am I to disagree?
He said he's reading the Book of Job.
Ah! Perfect, I said. The Book of Suffering.
I also read that when I was depressed and still have passages marked in my own bibble.
"For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth," quoth Jack.
Is that from Job, I asked. I thought that's from the New Testament.
I looked it up online while he was talking.
Oh no, more evidence of an Afterlife, which nothing can convince me of. I'd be terrified of eternity....such a long long time....
Jack said he'd feel terrible if he could never see his parents again, which he is counting upon. He lives in their house in Churchville, Bucks County, and feels their presence when he goes into their bedroom.
What a wonderful raconteur Jack is and for his sake I hope he sees his parents again.
He does believe, however, b/c he is a fundamentalist, that I am eternally damned if I don't accept Jesus as my savior.
I told him he's as extreme as the Muslims I'm reading about in the great novel-like nonfiction book my son Dan leant me
This morning, two people said they got insulin-dependent from taking the acne drug Accutane. It's a wonder the drug hasn't been banned.
Jack's wife Joan, who's had depression much of her life, was depression-free for a wonderful nine years. During that time they traveled, taking a cruise to Alaska, with a stateroom with windows. They were upgraded once they got aboard, since apparently there were some extra rooms.
Like the Mediterranean cruise Sarah and I took when my kidney function was slowly declining, they were so impressed with the kindness of the crew, most of em from Indonesia.
Sadly, Joan, remembers nothing of their cruise, due to ECT and also the fact that depression itself causes memory problems.
A year and a half ago, Joan found it difficult to sleep. She has always worked in various capacities, as well as attending women's groups such as Bible Study.
Jack, who calls himself Freddy the Medicine Man, called the family doctor and asked if it was okay to take Ambien CR, as SEEN ON TELEVISION!!!
Hey, if it's on TV, it must be good, right?
Sure, said the family doctor, read ignoramus.
Three days later Joan, who is now 75 and who can barely speak, woke up and said to Jack, the most fearful words in the world.
"It's back."
But God has a purpose in all this. We are simply "a speck" in the ocean of time, said Jack, and haven't a clue what His reason is.
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