February 18, 2018

Another very busy week in the service of the Lord. The first big item as many of you, but not all, are aware, was a scary Valentines Day event. We didn’t even have the opportunity to wish Tim and Kathy a happy anniversary. Mom was talking to one of the other sisters in our apartment complex about 3:30 and sensed that she couldn’t express herself very well. The sister, who’s pretty good in German just thought she was telling her that she was having trouble in a different language. She came home but didn’t say a word to me, as the episode had passed, until a couple of hours later when it became obvious that she couldn’t adequately express what she wanted to say. We had planned on a Valentine’s day outing with the other couples when I became seriously concerned that something was really going on. I had her lie down as she described a little bit of a headache over her left eye and then later described a heaviness in her right arm earlier in the day which had subsided. There was a gathering outside our door as everyone was preparing to go out when I announced that I was very concerned about her condition. Our next-door neighbor came in immediately and helped me administer to her and then a member of the temple presidency guided us in his car as we followed in another brother’s car to the hospital. There she was taken into the emergency room where I provided some translation and she was evaluated by the doctor on call. The neurologist on call that night was scheduled to go home in about an hour but came to provide his expertise and we all agreed that she must be having what seemed to be a mild stroke. Most of her symptoms subsided within a short period of time but they recommended that she stay for further evaluation.When we arrived at her room, it turned out to be a “Uni-sex” room with a male roommate. There apparently was no other space available on the ward but they had a curtain between them. That didn’t help to decrease the sound of his snoring. This ended up being a three-day stay and she received an
ultrasound of the brain circulation, an echocardiogram, several blood tests and a
prolonged evaluation of her heart rhythm to make sure she didn’t have what’s known as atrial fibrillation which can be associated with strokes.  On her second day she received
a female roommate and her last day she was the only one in the room.

She had an interesting experience with German medicine as she was rounded on each morning by a doctor and possibly 5 or 6 interns. She found a very nice doctor who came from Sicily where he had learned English as a second language before coming to Germany to get his medical education.  He provided her with some English literature on some of the things going on. All of her tests came back normal. By Saturday afternoon everyone agreed she could go home and really hadn’t had any persistent symptoms since she was first admitted. I think her name got placed on the prayer roll a dozen times or so at the temple and we agreed that she had truly been blessed. No further problems have since arisen and she’s back in the normal swing of things. Thanks for your prayers as well.

As for the rest of the week, it was very busy. We had more people come from Poland and a brother speaking Hungarian with a sister speaking Russian. Languages seem to be our greatest challenge.  While Mom was in the hospital I was assigned to work with a Sister Dospil whom we knew in Vienna but who is a native Hungarian. So even though I don’t know the language she can help me pronounce things off a card that is available. Our most versatile brother, Brother Fillmore, who can read Hungarian, Polish and Czech along with a little Russian is going home in a little over a week from now and we will really miss him and his wife and their capabilities.

On another note, we are no longer the newies in the group.  Elder and Sister Lindsay arrived yesterday for 18 months. He served a mission in Bavaria and is a previous stake president. She speaks only a little German but apparently her mother had some German heritage or may even have originated from Germany. We’ll find out more about them tomorrow night at Family Home Evening.

Our assignments continue to be as veil coordinators and we were kept very busy throughout the whole week. Occasionally a session will be cancelled if there aren’t enough patrons but that didn’t happen this week though we did have a few sessions with only one couple and either an extra brother or sister. Then we have to provide some help with temple workers to augment out things happening around the altar. Sister Dospil really helped me out while Mom was in the hospital and I even had the opportunity of leading one of the sessions on Saturday, only the second time that has ever happened.  We were really helped out by the Bonners, the other veil coordinators who picked up the slack while I was occasionally running to the hospital as well as provided the use of their car to get back and forth, without which it would have been an hour long walk one way. 

Driving in Germany was a new experience, but it went fairly well after I inadvertently turned a couple of times into parking lots by mistake. I was able to pick up my new glasses on the first day out and we’ve also finally received a printer so we can start writing some things down that we want to preserve around here.

People have really been great while all this was going on.  Although Mom did get out our Valentine’s day gifts to everyone before everything started happening we have received goodies, and food and blessings galore from everyone here we know. A faithful Brother Schmidt who was helping out at the last session on Saturday, probably in his 80’s, stopped me as I was adding some names to the prayer roll. He carefully wrote out “Schwester Parker” and added it to the pack of names I was carrying.  As you can imagine, everyone has been concerned and made sure she knew of their love and prayers in her behalf. Two couples even visited her in the hospital and provided candy bars and a package of hot chocolate together with a mug to make it in. I have included a picture of our invitation to dinner tonight. To the right are the Fillmores who leave in a little over a week and the Mosses, our next door neighbors who graciously invited us so Mom wouldn’t have to fix anything today.

               Mom: Wow, that was quite an experience, I hope never to have again. It’s kind of scary to understand everything that’s being said to you but not to be able to find the words to answer back. While I didn’t like staying at the Krankenhaus, it was good to have the reassurance that all the evaluations turned out well. It seems like I’m still in pretty good shape, I just need more sleep and a little less stress. I was very touched by all the love and kindness extended to us, especially the prayers from the temple workers. Everyone reached out to help in any way that they could, and all our senior couples showered us with food and flowers on my return. It felt like the Relief Society sisters compassionate service without any coordination, but it was delightful. I can’t say much for German hospital food, but I survived. Thanks for all your love and prayers. I think that I could feel them coming from heaven upon me.

       Love you all very much,
Hugs and Prayers,
Grammy, Grampa, Mom, Dad, Elder and Sister Parker