Woodpecker!

The funniest thing happened to me this morning!  My friend Libby is an avid bird lover and has a bird feeder on her window. I was at her apartment this morning and a lot of different kinds of birds were flying around the feeder trying to fight to get their portion. All at once, Bump!, one bird flew into the window pane. We both jumped and I said “Oh! goodness. I’ll bet that little bird got hurt.  I looked toward the small tree nearby and saw a bird just shaking it’s head. It looked kinda odd to me because I had never seen a bird do that. I told Libby to look at that bird, it had to be the one that hit the window, because of the way it was shaking it’s little head. Libby looked and started laughing! Then she said “Peggy, that’s a woodpecker”.
That was the first woodpecker I had ever seen, in all my 76years (Will be in May!). I asked her “Can he really peck holes in that branch?” She said yes, still laughing at me.  Loretta loved birds as much as Libby does. She would go out into the backyard, after we came home from the cafe every afternoon and feed those birds. Sometimes when we got home, on the telephone lines across our property, birds would be sitting from one end to the other, waiting on her to feed them. We would get the biggest kick out of that!
I have learned all about birds from watching from Libby’s window. She tells me which each one is which. We saw about five big fat robins one day last week. You name it!  We’ve seen it.
Libby and I share something special. We laugh at one another’s silly jokes and also the crazy things older folks do. Today she called for me to come over and she had me an Easter coffee cup. It is beautiful and she has one just like it. She said “Now, we have one just alike!”  I told her everytime I looked at it , I would think of her!  She said “I will think of you too, when I look at mine.”
She is failing, now, from all that morphine she has to take, but she will never give up until she absolutely has to. She has taught me so much about hanging in when you have a terminal illness. She cries sometimes! She is human, just as we all are.  She shared with the Hospice Chaplain, Dave, yesterday that she wanted to go home to be with her Lord and Savior but also to see her Mom and the rest of her friends and family. She has really fought a battle but I think she is getting tired now!
She looked over at me, yesterday, and said “Peggy, I know it hurts you to hear me say this, but this is no way to have to live!”  I agree!   Yes, my asthma is under control, but I haven’t forgotten the dashes to the emergency room, when I would be fighting for my breath. It’s a horrible feeling! I’ve seen her when she had to fight and she’s still doing it. Not as often, with all the medicine and morphine she has to take.
My Prayer has been for awhile now, that God won’t  let her smother to death, that He would just reach down and pick her up in those strong loving arms of  His and take her home as she is sleeping.
When she wakes, the first face she will see is Jesus, Her Lord. Then she will see Rudy, Her husband. What a wonderful, glorious day, that will be.