When the Lord Cometh to Visit

Photo by Daan Stevens on Unsplash

Confession by Kim

I am born and raised a Catholic and this religion ran deep in the family, even my ancestors all the way from China!

After few decades, majority of our family members are still Catholic and one of my uncle even end up serving the church as a priest. Point of saying this is, the teaching and beliefs of this particular religion is fairly strong in the family.

So this a story, about what happen, 18 years ago, a night before my grandma passed away. She had suffered diabetes more than 10 years before her passing, on top of the diabetes, she also suffered from terrible leg ulceration, to be honest, I do not know whether that is even the exact term for it, but her legs are pretty much, swelling, with wounds here and there and blackish in color for as long as I could remember. Due to diabetes, all these wounds would not heal and doctor said no choice but to amputate.

The night before the surgery, my uncle and my cousin were keeping her company in the hospital. It has passed visiting hours, so hospital is fairly quiet except for the noise of cars passing by on the street outside. My cousin and uncle were having conversation but through whispers since both of them are not sleepy and they have to be awake anyway, in case of anything.

I could not remember the exact time, when I think according to my uncle, it was rather late, or nearly midnight, when the both of them, saw and heard, the ward door swayed and remained open, as if there were someone that came through the door and stood there. But…there was no one there. What’s weirder is, the ward door, is an automated door. Both of them stopped talking and just stare at the door, they were thinking, could be doctors or nurses that is coming through and they open the door somehow. But the door remained open, with no one passing through, for 5 minutes or so, and it closed back by itself, like how it used to be.

Right at the moment when the door was closed, my grandma opened her eyes, with the widest smile, she called my uncle and said, “you know who came to visit me just now?”

Right at the moment when the door was closed, my grandma opened her eyes, with the widest smile, she called my uncle and said, “you know who came to visit me just now?”

​My uncle then asked who. “It’s Jesus and Mother Mary…” said my grandmother. Obviously, my uncle and cousin looked at each other puzzled and thought, she’s just dreaming. Grandma then continued saying, “They said, my legs are healed and I may come home” and obviously she’s very happy to hear that. No one in the world, no matter how bad is your condition, wanted any parts of your body gone. Uncle then told her, “good lah like that, then tomorrow we can check out and go home! But now, you have to sleep, cause now is still nighttime.” She went back to sleep.

The next morning, she woke up around 5 in the morning, feeling all happy after what she experiences the night before and told the story all over again to my uncle and cousin that is still there. She drank some water and then went to back to sleep, feeling all joyous. She never woke up. She passed away that morning, just a few hours before doctors could cut off both of her legs.

It’s a sad news for our big family, her 13 children and over 30 grandchildren were all notified and asked to return home immediately. Dad, uncles and aunts went to the hospital to bring her body back for funeral. And this is the last part of the thing that we could not explain, when she is home, her children put on her favorite cheongsam as her last attire before she was placed in the casket. As they were dressing her, they found… no more swells, no more wounds on her legs and the color? It looks as white and as soft as a baby’s skin.
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This is when my uncle told the story of the night before. Maybe the higher power did visit her. Maybe her leg was really healed. Maybe she is really coming home. Just that, it was not our home, it was her forever home.