Clara

I want to tell you about a woman for whom I have a great deal of admiration. Her name is Clara. Clara is a feisty woman in her late 70's, I'm guessing. She and my mom have spent their adult lives teaching children in Good News Clubs. If you don't know what that is, it's Child Evangelism flannelgraph Bible stories, songs and Bible verses taught in an hour-long setting for children. Clara has not only taught, but she's organized purchasing a chapel on wheels to be used in places where homes were not available. She's been instrumental in purchasing tons of candy to be given out to kids each week. She taught more than one class a week in her heyday.
Several years ago, Clara was diagnosed with the worst kind of arthritis. She has been in excruciating pain for years...but you'd never know it. She has maintained her sense of humor in the worst of situations---and she has a wonderful sense of humor!! She's an amazing woman. Someone I admire and want to be like. I only hope I could have her attitude if I were in that kind of pain. How do you do that?
Because of her arthritis, she's had to have help this past year. And recently, she's had even more help. My mom has gone to stay with her some evenings and this past Tuesday evening was one of those times. When my mom got there, she found Clara in the bathroom floor. She'd fallen and thought she'd broken a hip. She had on a medic alert---but it didn't work! They took her by ambulance to Amarillo and found that she'd broken her shoulder and not her hip. She knows she's going to have round-the-clock care now, but it hasn't deterred her sense of humor. She told Andy & I last night that she knows they can't do surgery--she wouldn't survive. And then she told Andy he better not get out of the country---she wants him to sing at her funeral. Her parting shot as we walked out of her hospital room was this, "If you're not there to sing at my funeral, I'll come back to haunt you!!"
What a lady---a funny lady!