04/07/2009 Tue

http://benwitherington.blogspot.com/2009/04/tar-heels-mobetter-in-motown.html

Again with the Ben blog. This one is about his dad's love for Carolina, having been a cheerleader for its teams in the past. The picture is of Ben's mom and dad whom Don and I have known for years as two of the sweetest people ever. It is at Ben Senior's funeral where Ben III (writer of the blog) sang "Hark the Sound of Tar Heel Voices, Ringing Loud and Clear" all in honor of his dad's love for the school. The ushers also went out to the beautiful pipe organ playing a Carolina song. I wish I could have been there because I loved Ben Sr. and I believe this is one funeral where the content was tailor made to the person being eulogized.

I did the hospital visitation today, or rather visitations, would be more like it. I left at 12:15 and got home at 4:30. I saw 4 people at 3 different locations (but the locations were close to one another), and 3 of the 4 had other people in the room and I visited with them also. It went very well. I was a little nervous about one of them, an older male, who I know as a pillar of the church. Unfortunately, "no peripheral vision me" leaned on his orchid and he let me know it. But then we talked about orchid care for 5 minutes or so and I made my goodbyes and left. Another interesting visit was the first one. She had a really bad shoulder and had had surgery but was on a morphine drip, in and out of the conversation. Her friend and I chatted away and it turns out her friend used to be a cheerleader at college. She said although she was a cheerleader (the head one in fact), she doesn't really understand all the ins and outs of basketball. She would be asking her squad to cheer, "GO...GO...GO" and someone nearby would be waving no at her as she should be leading her squad in "DEFENSE...DEFENSE...DEFENSE." Even when she did get the cheer right, the play would happen so fast that she needed to change it right in the middle. I loved it. I thought everyone on the court knew all about every sport they had a hand in but it looks like I am wrong about that. I told her I do know a little about the game but mainly I know when the ball goes through the hoop it means SCORE.

She told me that I should try cold then hot treatments on the scab that won't come off my head. You put ice on it for 10 or 15 minutes, then get a washcloth as hot as you can take it and put that on the same spot. The expanding and contracting of the skin in the area sometimes can accelerate healing and it makes more sense to me than just wetting the area (which is doing nothing.) She learned this working in the athletics department at Univ of Alabama (I believe).

Anyway, a good day but a busy one. Hope you all have had a great day too.