Feeling love helps difficult situation

“I didn’t know so many people loved me.” 

My grandson, Jacob, said those words in reference to his recent surgery and subsequent hospital stay. His follow-up visit showed no signs of the cause of his ordeal. According to his doctors, Jacob is just like any other boy his age and is free to be himself with no restrictions. We are cautiously grateful that the operation was a success.

The awe and amazement in his voice as he made that observation was the same as when he held his baby cousin for the first time and declared that he had never held a baby before. His eyes were bright and his smile lit up the room. 

Most of his Texas relatives stopped by the hospital to give him encouragement and to let him know they loved him. We felt bad about not being there, but figured that we would just be in the way.

He has no idea exactly how many people love him and were praying for him. In addition to his own immediate family, friends and neighbors, there are several people in Ohio who love him and were concerned. There were others in Virginia, Colorado, and Maryland who were keeping up with his progress. There were two worried grandparents in Indiana and an unknown number of people who read this column who were also concerned. Neither he nor I will ever know exactly how many people love him. 

 His teacher stopped by after he returned home. He showed her his happy place. It is the creek and undeveloped land near his home that we always visit when we are there. At a mere 10 years old, he is most comfortable when surrounded by trees, bugs, and unknown critters waiting to be caught and examined.

 I didn’t know so many people loved me. 

It is such a simple phrase. I thought about it as we were standing in a surprisingly long line for the funeral of a friend. I wonder if she knew how many people cared about her. I wonder if her husband knew that hundreds of people would take the time to stop by and try to comfort him on the loss of his wife.

Do we ever know how many people love us and how many feel the opposite? We want to think that we are lovable even when we aren’t. 

Of all the people who love and care for Jacob, his family is at the top of the list for those who love him. If we are lucky, our families are also the ones who love us the most. Perhaps being cared for is far more important than almost anything. 

There is a reason behind all those sayings that tell us “no man is an island,” or it “takes a village to raise a child” when the sentiment behind it is that we are all in this together. If his family hadn’t cared enough to take him to the doctor when he didn’t seem like himself, or if his mom hadn’t cared enough to press for additional tests when the doctor originally said there was nothing wrong, if the doctors and nurses hadn’t cared about their patient and their jobs, we might have had a very different ending to the story. 

All those people dedicated to getting Jacob back to being himself were vital to his recovery. I believe that all the people who love him made a difference. Do I have proof that prayer works? Of course not. But I sincerely believe that realizing that he is surrounded by people who love him made his recovery much easier.