Great Physician

Chapter 39 (cont'd)
Sam whistled to get Simmy's attention.
"Thanks for the photo. You'll find it on my blog in the next week or so." Simmy handed the mother a business card with her information on it.
"Toodles! Have a great day!" Simmy went to catch up with Sam who was taking the shortcut through the vineyard to the cabin.
As she slowly traversed the large stone steps, she was careful not to put her knee out. She was about to step onto the gravel path but a small engine whirr made her stop, and just in time, too.
Laeh came zooming down the steep hill in the 'Hummer golf cart,' her silver blonde hair flying around her head. She spotted Simmy out of the corner of her eye and stopped the little golf cart in a gravel spit.
"Hey, do you want a ride to the cottage?"
Simmy had hit it off with her the moment she saw her and she grinned at this younger version of herself and said, "Absolutely, spitfire, could we pick up grumpy down the path?"
Laeh laughed. "Your husband and my Dad... are most men over forty kind of grumpy?"
Simmy chuckled. "Only got one husband, honey. Can't speak for the rest of them."
Sam jumped on the back of the cart and just barely grabbed the frame of the cart before Laeh spun some more gravel. There was some common street language vernacular coming from behind Simmy but she just grinned and looked straight ahead.
As Laeh barreled down the path to the back porch of Magnolia Cottage, Simmy bit her bottom lip, unsure if they would stop before they were all dumped onto the porch.
Laeh applied the brakes but the steps of the porch were getting closer and closer... and 'bump.' The little rubber tires of the golf Hummer hit the bottom step with a solid thump.
"Oops! I forgot about the extra weight," she gave Simmy a wink and a nod accompanied with a double click coming from the side of her flashy toothed smile.
"Where could we go for a flea market or antique shop around here?" Simmy asked as she got out of the cart and stepped fluidly onto the porch, bad knee forgotten.
"There is a an old warehouse in town that has a antique market all this weekend. They're even open Monday because it's a long weekend," Laeh was backing the golf Hummer back up the path and raising her voice to match her speed.
Simmy waved at her and called, "Thanks for the ride!"
Behind her she could hear Sam give a sarcastic rejoinder, "You mean hair-raising whirl."
"Let's go find that antique shop. I'll just go grab my purse," Simmy was feeling young and invigorated.
Half an hour later they had parked at the warehouse and were wandering around the hot, stuffy atmosphere. The smell of old things along with advertising like, 'The Original New York Seltzer' and Blackwoods Beverages was a paint-peeled reminder of days gone by.
Simmy was wandering the concrete floor path when Sam bellowed her name in much urgency, then came around the corner of an aisle and grabbed her arm saying, "There's a woman who has passed out on the floor. Come on!"
Sam had this 'idea' that if it could be fixed in life, Simmy could fix it.
As she drew into the melee of crowd watchers, she assessed the situation in three seconds flat.
"Does anyone have medical training? A nurse?" There was no one medically qualified to help this poor woman so Simmy pushed her purse into Sam's arms and knelt on the floor at the head of the helpless body that seemed to be in a one-sided seizure. There was a man wailing and speaking in a foreign language, alternately pushing on the woman's chest and willing her, through heart-wrenching pleading, to come back around.
Simmy heard someone say, "Can she hear us?" so she spoke into the half-open eyes, "Can you hear us, can you understand what I'm saying?"
In the heightened atmosphere, Simmy caught the words, 'Maria' and 'Jesu' coming from the old man.
'Catholic,' she thought, so she started saying 'Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.'"
The woman suddenly opened her eyes and seemed quite lucid. Only her eyes were speaking but she nodded, and her face crumpled in emotion before her body relaxed and the shaking stopped. Another woman grabbed her wrist for a pulse. The old man started wailing in a terrible ruckus, now.
Simmy just pleaded with the Great Physician to keep this woman alive, feeling a total calm. She brushed the womans' brow and a wig moved out of place, revealing shorn hair.
'Possibly a cancer patient...' Simmy kept praying.
Someone had called for an ambulance and Sam had gone to direct the EMT's. It was only a few minutes before they arrived. Simmy jumped out of the way to let the medical personnel do what they were trained to do.
The information from the crowd started filtering into her mind, "Polish,... don't speak any English,... husband speaks English,... that's her Father,..."
The other woman who had been very assertively helpful got the old man a chair. Simmy noticed he was in need of kleenex so she dove into her purse, grateful for her sons' gift of taking care of the minute details, and pushed a kleenex into the hands of the old Polish man just as 'the other woman' asked, "Does someone have a..., oh, good."
Simmy pushed another three kleenexes into the shirt pocket of the Polish man.
In the next fifteen minutes, the melee had moved outdoors and Simmy and Sam waited for things to get settled to see if they were needed for anything else.
The helpful woman had moved two chairs outside and Simmy had a chance to witness her kneeling beside the man, praying.
When she was done, Simmy asked, "Which church do you go to?"
"Morrow Gospel," she replied. "My husband and I weren't even supposed to be manning the cafe today. We're just filling in." She seemed a bit harried now that things were settling down.
"Good," Simmy nodded perfunctorily and smiled.
A new man came on the scene, a German fellow, who looked at Simmy and said, "I used to work with the husband for five years or so and I've met the wife a few times too. She's got cancer."
Simmy nodded and said, "He seems very comfortable with you. Maybe you could drive the car. Apparently, only the woman has a valid drivers' license."
"Yes, I know," he replied.
Simmy sat down beside the old Polish man and stroked his sweaty shoulders, gently saying, "Jesu Christi!" He continued sobbing.
Eventually, things got worked out and decided. The German fellow agreed to drive the old man and the daughter he had traveled to Canada with, back to his co-workers' home.
As the old man got up, he reached for the Morrow Gospel servant and kissed her on the cheek. Then he reached for Simmy's hand and kissed it repeatedly, muttering in Polish. Simmy hugged him and he waved, then he grabbed Simmy's hand again and kissed it again, his old stubbled chin rasping his thanks.
The German fellow looked at Simmy and she said, "Just say Jesu Christi and he'll calm down. It's the same in any language. Well, God sent you here on the right day, hey, my friend?"
The German fellow looked a little uncomfortable but moved to serve his co-worker.
As Sam and Simmy walked back to their Hummer, Simmy asked, "Who were you praying for?"
"The husband, mostly. After I started praying for him, he calmed down."
"Whew! That was a combined effort of willing hearts."
"And hands," Sam replied.