Throughout this time, we were still calling Dad on a daily basis so that even though he was sedated he could hear our voices and hopefully know that we were there for him. The hospital had a number we could call to schedule a time each day to have someone take the phone to Dad and hold it to his ear for him to hear us. (We later learned that each family was given two time slots a day.) This was a blessing since we weren’t allowed inside.
However, it also created several problems. First, the schedule was unpredictable; we might be scheduled for 10 a.m. on one day and 4 p.m. on the next. That’s not a big deal if we knew that Dad was going to be in the hospital for a week, but when it’s three weeks or four weeks with no normalcy regarding Dad’s condition and not even normalcy of daily visiting hours… one more unpredictable variable began to wear on us. Worse, if a doctor or nurse was in the room checking on Dad at our scheduled call time we completely lost our chance to talk to Dad. It was “counted” as a call because the attendant had to suit up in PPE. While we understood that everyone was trying to do the best they could in a bad situation, it just added to our feelings of helplessness.
Mom took the calls with Dad very seriously. In the morning, she usually wrote out what she wanted to say and the Bible verses she wanted to read to him. So if something happened that made her miss the daily call, which was her only connection to Dad, it was hard.
But God blessed us with the hospital chaplain who was willing to call us and let us talk to Dad instead of us having to go through the hospital hotline. When I was visiting Mom, it worked out really well because the chaplain could let both of us talk to Dad. When I was back home, we had it arranged so that my brother could call, then the chaplain would call Mom, then me. That way, we saved on PPE because the chaplain only had to suit up once to go into Dad’s room to take all three calls! Of course, thinking back on it, it was probably pretty boring for him to listen to us just talk to Dad. But he often prayed with us, and I was so grateful for his warm, calming presence. He was really the only person at the hospital we felt we got to know. I remember him praying with us using Colossians 3:1-3 "...Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God." He reminded us that Dad was hidden with Christ in God. What a comforting truth! Even as Dad lay sedated in his hospital bed, he was safe in the arms of Jesus!
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