Welcoming Victor

 An excerpt from my journal entry: April 28, 2015 

Vic arrived yesterday at around three o'clock.  He made a memorable entrance as he laid on the horn to announce his arrival.  I was not impressed.  And so, another chapter of my life begins.  

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We had opened our home based hearing aid business, All About Hearing, four years before Gary's Uncle Vic's arrival.  GP (my husband) and I did not work well together, so (to save our marriage) he voluntarily retired three years after opening, leaving me to solely run the business, and I LOVED EVERY MINUTE!  

Shortly before Vic's arrival, construction began.  I would need a bathroom for clients who were primarily elderly and often required to visit the restroom.  So, a hole was cut into the wall of the reception area to the garage since the apartment bathroom would belong to Vic, and a small half-bath was put on the far end of my garage to accommodate my customer's needs.  

The week of Vic's arrival was chaotic, with thick dust covering my office and reception area. Dust was visible everywhere and inhaled dangerously, halting business for a time.  

I was against this.  Let me count the reasons why.

1. So much storage space was gone now, and I had nowhere to go with everything.  

2. This lifelong commitment would end with this 82-year-old man needing much more than a place to stay.  

3. The business.  What would running a reputable business look like with life being lived on the other side of the door? I needed quiet to give hearing tests.  

4. The dust from the construction made me very sick for several months. 

5. Privacy would now be limited.  

6. Responsibility would be huge for GP now and more so 'down the road,' and since GP lived with so many anger issues and so much negativity already, I was not sure he could handle the gigantic commitment he was making. 

Lord, give me strength.

Ten years later, let's look at my list of concerns and how life unfolded:

1. There was so much clutter with nowhere to go with it that every day became a day of organizing for me.

2. The 82-year-old man is now a 92-year-old man with failing health.

3. Vic enjoyed his TV loud!  Really, really, really LOUD.  So when I would be in the middle of a test, and my customers could not hear the 'beeps' for Vic's choice movie's cursing and screaming beyond the door of my testing office,  I would tap on Vic's door - and ask him to please turn the volume down.  He would turn it down a notch or two, but not where it needed to be.  I lost sales.  I started scheduling fewer appointments and at times when I thought he would still be in bed sleeping.  GP tried frantically to help the situation by putting up thick curtains to cut down on the loud sounds coming into my office, but it did nothing.  I could not speak of my concerns to GP because an angry rant would ensue.

4. Eventually, I could breathe again, my good health returned, and everything was fine.  I worked around my less-than-good working surroundings.

5. There was never total privacy again.

6. RESPONSIBILITY for GP was almost more than he could bear.  Graphic and insulting details are withheld here...   but let's just say it's been rough.  Vic's last fall, a little over a week ago, was a wake-up call for all.  Vic needed more care than GP was able to give him.   

I waited outside Vic's room with GP, and I could hear Vic inside asking the nursing home worker if they were finished with him now.  They were.  When the door opened, we were greeted with a big smile.  I noted his frail image lying in the bed, and a feeling of peace swept over me.  "They're pretty good to me in here," Vic said.  "Yeah, it's not bad..."   We talked and laughed and shared some conversations with his roommate and family.  

When I go outside to take my dog to potty at night, I feel empty as I walk past his window.  There used to be life living inside that window.  A man I did not want to share my home with, but now it felt foreign to me to have him gone.  From the first day of his irritating entrance into my life, as he lay on that horn up until now, I grew to love the man who would change my world.  

God reminds me, no matter what --- be kind.  And God will do the rest.  And God has never let me down.