Last stop

The last two days I've been at a nursing home with my dad as he recovers from a broken hip.  Nursing homes are a sad place.  You can check in, but you can't check out.  It's often the last stop for many before the cemetery.  It's a sad place to be.


One of my dad's table mates is a wonderful liar.  He talks of his great exploits and adventures.  Yesterday he had just been at the race track driving his race car.  This morning he talked of his airplane.  The truth is he hasn't left this place in ages and no one ever visits him.  His stories are as much for his benefit and survival as they are for ours.


There are some who have long ago been lost to Alzheimer's, some are aware they at the beginning of this terrible disease with reminders of its outcome all around them.  Some are cheerful,  but most are sullen, depressed or resolved to their fate.  Many try to engage in conversation having no one else who will talk to them.  They are desperate for human contact as they live surrounded by others looking for the same thing.  They all have stories of lives lived, stories of grand adventures remembered.  It's a depressing place to visit because it is the last stop for so many.....


....but the truth is it's not the last stop, it's simply the way our culture has dealt with the elderly.  In many ways we try to put our problems out of sight, not knowing what to do with them, but these are people with stories of lives lived, choices made and eternity ahead.  As I spend this week in this nursing home with my dad I hope I can engage some of these people in a discussion about the God they soon will meet...because it's not their last stop as they move into eternity.