Gracepoint Church, Peabody
Callie stood by the side of Clarence Johnson’s bed. She tapped her fingers on the sides of her legs, her eyes roving from the face of her grandpa to the large round wall clock mounted next to the door. She had been told that he would be going home at noon today.
Callie glanced back at her grandpa and thought about how wonderful it was going to be to have him at home. It would be a time of change for him, but, as she surveyed his current surroundings, she knew that the change would definitely be for the best. She thought of the changes she had encountered after her own battle with cancer four years earlier. It had been good to go home.
The sight of the gray-haired nurse sitting in the room’s only rocking chair brought a smile to Callie’s face. Her heart filled with gratitude as she recalled the kind and gentle way that the staff here had treated Clarence. Earlier Callie had watched the nurse tenderly swab her Grandpa’s lips with a moistened sponge as he slept.
Callie had felt a flutter in her heart when the nurse had remarked, “Clarence, I am sure going to miss you. Who am I going to beat in checkers now?”
Callie tossed another glance at the clock, thrilled at the realization that the sweeping second hand was pushing the moment of her grandpa’s release closer.
This is the first installment of a four-part series.