Emerging Courageous Online Magazine – Stories

He Just Sat There By Pamela Perry Blaine

"If there's anything I can do, please let me know."

How many time have we heard that phrase spoken? Sometimes it's not easy to know what to do or say when tragedy falls on someone that we love. We feel like we have to fill the silence with words and the emptiness with action and I suppose that is the natural response within all of us when we want to help.

There's certainly nothing wrong with asking or in doing something. W should do all that we can to help others in every way that we can, but sometimes there is nothing that can be done. All the doing and fixing has been done or tried and all the words have already been said.

What do you "do" for someone whose heart is broken or whose world has been torn apart? When there is a great loss or perhaps the death of someone who was dearly loved, is there really anything that anyone can "do"?

I might never have known how to answer these questions, except for Lynn. . .The answer came to me at a time of great loss in my own life. My mother had died, and that was when Lynn came by the funeral home. It was the afternoon before the visitation and I happened to be there alone because everyone else had gone to dinner. The rest of the family wanted me to go with them but I just couldn't go because I just felt the need to stay there.

I was sitting in the front with my back to the door. When I heard someone come into the room. I turned to look and I saw that it was Lynn. He slowly walked toward me, said my name, and sat down beside me. He just sat there. He didn't say a word unless I said something to him and if I became quiet, he was comfortable with the silence. He sat there with me for a long time and then after a while my family returned and others had come into the room. I didn't even notice when Lynn went home.

What did Lynn "do"? It was the best thing that anyone could have done for me at that time. . . he just sat there.

I hadn't seen Lynn for years. I began first grade with him and we graduated from high school together, yet I never really knew Lynn very well. There was

just that bond that only the people who go all through school together in a small classroom can know. It's a bond of friendship and it's strong.

Later on, I thought back to the time when we were children in grade school and that's when I recalled something important. I remembered that Lynn's

mother had died when he was very young and left a husband and several small children behind with Lynn being the oldest. I guess Lynn knew a lot about pain and loss at an early age. Do you suppose someone sat with Lynn after his mother died? Maybe so, and I wonder if when Lynn's younger siblings cried for their mother that he simply gathered them next to him

and perhaps . . . he just sat there.

Pam enjoys writing, music, and country living. She writes "Pam's Corner" for the local newspaper and many of her writings have been published on the internet as well as in several books. Pam says, "I have loved music and writing ever since I can remember. I play piano at church and I'm an avid reader. One of my goals is to be able to write for my children and grandchildren so special memories will not be forgotten." She has a CD entitled "I'll Walk You Home". If you would like one, they are available by freewill donation. More information as well as a clip from the CD is on her website at
http://www.blaines.us/PamyPlace.htm

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                `·-»Pamy

"Security is not the absence of danger,
but the presence of God"

My Website:
http://www.blaines.us/PamyPlace.htm
email: [email protected]

"NO ONE IS USELESS IN THIS WORLD
WHO LIGHTENS THE BURDEN OF ANYONE ELSE"

http://www.greatcom.org/laws/englishkgp/default.htm

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