Namasté

Namasté

In January 2006 my husband laid dying in a bed in the ICU at KU Med Center. For six days we waited a patient vigil for hope that somehow this terrible nightmare would find itself as just that…a horrible dream and we would all wake up and life would be normal. However this was not to be the case.

Waiting is an awful word for those who have no control over their world. My little universe revolved around the ICU waiting room and it seemed to grow smaller by the hour. The saving grace was that many wonderful people sat patiently with me in that room. Many family and friends were there and told stories, prayed with us or brought food. One day during our vigil I received a call from Mr.. Steger a wonderful college professor from Saint Mary and he heard about John and wanted to come see me.

When Mr. Steger came up he told me a story about how his wife had breast cancer and how he too held a vigil around her praying for a miracle just a year prior. He said that someone gave him a special gift that had been blessed and that he would like for me to have it. He said that this gift brought him peace and that he hoped it would remind me of all the people at Saint Mary who were praying for me and my husband. Mr. Steger opened up a box and handed me a rock. A rock. Now it was a pretty smooth, cool to the touch rock….but it was a rock.

On one side of the rock was written the word “Namasté ” He explained that the word was Hindu and was used a greeting of peace. Roughly translated it means: "I honor the Spirit in you which is also in me." Mr. Steger told me it was a greeting of peace similar to Shalom.

The lake house is a very peaceful place for me and it is also one of healing so I thought about approaching Dave with the idea of maybe naming this house Namasté . Dave is very reflective and respectful anytime I talk about John. There is a sad irony that in order for him to love me I had to lose the love of my life and father to my children. That brings us to a sad fact of life. However it is what it is, and I can’t change it so I move on. (enough of the sad talk.)

The other night I tell Dave about my story of the Namasté rock, Mr. Steger, John and then I add that also on that same day our Deacon Justin McMenamy also brought me a rock for John from Sr Mary Jo’s house. It just so happened that Sister had just passed away and when Justin went to her house on the kitchen table she had about 500 white rocks that she had written the word Jesus on. He knew that Sister was very special to me so he brought me a couple of her Jesus rocks since I couldn’t be there for her death or funeral with John in the hospital.

As a side note my brother-in-law Chris made a comment after Justin left about how he had a strange desire to go to the parking garage to get a handful of rocks and sprinkle them on John if it would help.

After Dave hears my story we googled Namasté and find many meanings and decide that our lake house should be a place of peace and healing for us and all who come there. We shall try to seek out the Christ in all who cross the threshold of our house. (okay now it is getting too deep on with this story because there is a twist)

The next day while I am at work and Dave is out at the lake with the boys, Andrew and the electrician and his helpers. Dave is repeating my story to Andrew and he couldn’t remember the word I used the night before so he was substituting the only “N” word he knows which is “Nagasaki” which is close but doesn’t convey the same thoughts as Namasté .

Out of the blue one of the electrician’s helpers ask Dave if the word he was looking for was Namasté and then he lifted his hair to reveal the word “Namasté ” tattooed across his forehead!!! What the heck??? That settled it then and there. My husband John was screaming at us that this new lake house had his blessing and Namasté is its name. Of course only I could appreciate John’s sense of humor to send out this particular electrician guy who happened to have Namasté tattooed on his forehead. (No offense to my tatted friends but tats just aren’t for me or John.)

My next thought as Dave is telling me this crazy talk story is that he should have photographed the guy and blogged it but he said he was too stunned to have thought of it. Maybe one day he will return and I can get my picture taken with him…or maybe I will get that tattoo after all.