Gail is a friend from Michigan who moved to Florida last year to be near her adult children and grandchildren. She lost her husband to a sudden heart attack a few years ago, but stayed in Michigan to be near her mother, who resided in a nursing home until she passed away last year.
I met Gail when we were both Realtors at Keller Williams. We became friends and spent time together, and even traveled together because her husband didn't care to travel. Gail is one of those people who never throws away a friend and has maintained friendships with folks all over the countrty that she has met through various stages in her life.
I always admired that about Gail; she has such a happy-go-lucky outlook on life that she doesn't allow anyone to rain on her parade. She is patient and kind, tenderhearted and thoughtful.
Her son called me the other day to tell me that Gail had fallen in the back yard while gardening and broke her hip. As she was being wheeled into ER, she made him promise to call me.
When Gail gets in a tight, she calls me. When her husband died in their home, the EMS technicians, police and neighbors were with her and she insisted that someone call me. So, I get a cryptic call from a police officer at 2 o'clock in the morning asking me to please come over because Gail needed me. He didn't say why, but I was there in a matter of minutes (we were neighbors), and I discovered her husband lying in the vestibule covered in a yellow tarp as they waited for the county coroner to show up. Gail and I spent the next few hours crying and praying and waiting for the family to fly in to help her make funeral arrangements.
As I pondered what I could do for her this time while she is recovering from hip replacement surgery, I remembered that sometimes you just need somebody to be with you. So I've offered and she has accepted that I will come and stay with her after her stint in rehab.
Why am I doing this? Because that's what friends do for friends. Amen.
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