My Friend Alberta

My new elderly patient sure was spunky. We’ll call her Alberta (not her real name). She recently moved into the area to be closer to family. She grew up in a small town in another part of the state and had certainly absorbed the rural Missouri values. Her daughter-in-law, a long-term established patient and friend of mine, accompanied her.

At one point Jesus was mentioned in passing conversation, and she immediately perked up and—with an intense look in her eyes and without missing a beat—said, “You know, if the Lord can put a light in a firefly’s behind, think of what he can do for you!”

I laughed so hard I nearly fell out of my chair! Her daughter-in-law laughed with me and gave me a look that I interpreted as “Oh, you haven’t heard anything yet.”

The clinic visit continued, and she continued to interject multiple colorful words and phrases, some of which I will choose not to mention here 😲. One thing was for certain though—she had a real and genuine relationship with her Creator and was freely willing to discuss how good and how big her God was!

And, she was not wrong about the firefly.