God Blessed the Broken Road
Loren Hardin
The Ashland Beacon
This is part two of a series about Ruth who enrolled in our home-based hospice services with end stage chronic airway obstruction. Ruth and I met almost every Tuesday morning for nearly a year and a half. I fondly refer to those Tuesdays, as my “Tuesdays with Ruth”.
During one of my visits, Ruth reflected upon the tragic death of her forty-year-old son in an automobile accident. Ruth suggested, “God knows what He’s doing. My son couldn’t have handled my death. He once told me, ‘We are all we have. All we have is each other.’”
Ruth also reflected on how she discovered her niche as an inpatient physical rehabilitation nurse, or how her niche discovered her: “I was working as a diabetic educator with my coworker, Pat. They really only needed one educator, and Pat was an R.N. and I was an L.P.N. So, I knew where that was going. So, I met with Human Resources to see what my options were. They told me I could work night shifts in the E.R., but at my age I knew I wasn’t going there. They told me I could work in the business office, but I knew that if I went there the hospital would end up getting audited or investigated. My third option was to work in the inpatient rehab unit. I didn’t know anything about it, but I took it.”
Regina, Ruth’s manager, explained that Ruth was a perfect fit for the rehab unit: “Ruth had tough love. Some of the patients really didn’t like her at first because she wouldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer. If a patient didn’t want to walk, she would say, ‘Yep we are’. She wouldn’t let them manipulate or sandbag her. But in the end, most of them loved her for it.”
Ruth’s journey reminds me of the song, “Bless the Broken Road”, by Rascal Flats: “I set out on a narrow way many years ago, hoping I would find true love along the broken road. But I got lost a time or two, wiped my brow and kept pushin’ through. I couldn’t see how every sign pointed straight to you. Every long-lost dream led me to where you are. Others who broke my heart, they were like northern stars…But you just smile and take my hand, you’ve been there you understand, it’s all part of a grander plan that is coming true…God blessed the broken road that led me straight to you.”
Many times, like with Ruth, we start out on a “narrow way” but sometimes it’s the “broken road” that leads us straight to where we were meant or destined to be. The prophet, Jeremiah, declared: “O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself. It is not in man who walks to direct his steps,” (Jeremiah 10:23). And wise King Solomon wrote: “A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps,” (Proverbs 16:9). Therefore, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths,” (Proverbs 3: 5-6).
“All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost; the old that is strong does not wither, deep roots are not reached by the frost. From the ashes a fire shall be woken, a light from the shadows shall spring, renewed the blade that was broken, the crownless again shall be king,” (J.R.R. Tolkien, “The Fellowship of the Ring”).
Loren Hardin was social worker at Southern Ohio Medical Center Hospice for twenty-nine years. He can be reached at lorenhardin53@gmail.com, or at 740.357.6091. You can order a copy of Loren’s book, “Straight Paths: Insights for living from those who have finished the course”, from Amazon.
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