When Things Don't Always Go Smoothly

Ever have a day when things happen beyond your own control that you end up just a little frustrated? Well, that is what it is like to submit to the will of others who may not realize their decisions affect others in the small things and sometimes the larger things.

My friend Merilee had been in the hospital for over a week. Her family was taking care of her needs but had other commitments so she needed someone to take her home from the hospital. I was glad to help out anyway I could while her father went to his own doctor appointment in Salt Lake at the same time she needed to be picked up to go home. I arrived at the hospital about 11:30 a.m.

Everything seemed to go well until we got to her dad's house in Provo, and we discovered he had locked the all the doors to get into the house. He was supposed to leave the back door unlocked. But he forgot to do that when he left earlier. He and a friend both had to see their doctors in Salt Lake City, so they went together and were not expected back home until much later in the afternoon.

We got there to the house about noon, and there was no spare key to be found. I could tell Merilee was getting tired and worn out; she needed to rest and lie down, she was in some pain from the surgery. The wife of her dad's friend had a spare key, but she wasn't home either to give us the key. We had to drive down the street and around a corner to the friend's house. All that we found was a noisy barking dog standing in the living room looking out a screen door with glass on it. The doors were locked from the inside. There was no way were we going to go in or find a key to her dad's house.

It was also evident that we couldn't get in touch with her dad, since the friend had his own cell phone, but we didn't know the number. It began to be very frustrating not knowing how to help the situation or find a way to come up with the key!! Her Dad doesn't have a cell phone; unfortunately nor does he plan to ever have one.

After about an hour and a half, which seemed more like three hours, the neighbor's wife came home who had the spare key, and we got in and opened her dad's door.

When her dad came home later, he felt very badly that he had forgotten to leave the door unlocked, which was probably a force of habit when he normally leaves the house locked up. You know how "old" people are sometimes; they do things out of habit and if they are the least bit distracted, they tend to forget important things such as leaving a key or a back door OPENED!

Merilee finally got to lie down to rest, and also realized much earlier that her spare key was in her dad's house while she was in the hospital. So when under stress a person doesn't think of everything and when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade.

So, after I took it all in stride I was grateful I didn't have anything else pressing upon my schedule nor someplace else to be but where I was. I was doing a service, I forgot myself, and it seemed like I had less stress than Merilee did at the time. She was very forgiving of her dad, since she knows he forgets things and stresses over things anyway on a normal day!