An Angel in the Hospital Waiting Room

My husband was in emergency surgery for a ruptured appendix that had been caught late. I was in the waiting room alone — our children were being watched by a neighbor and I had not wanted to call anyone else yet. I was terrified in a way I had never been before in twenty-three years of marriage. A woman sat down beside me whom I had never seen. She did not ask what was wrong — she simply said, "He is going to be fine. And you are not as alone as you feel right now." She sat with me for almost an hour. We talked about faith, about fear, about how we do not always get to see the whole picture. When the surgeon came out to tell me the procedure had gone well, I turned to introduce her. She was gone. I had not seen her leave. I went to the front desk and described her. The receptionist said no one matching that description had been in the waiting room that day. My husband recovered fully. I think about that woman often.