It's a Long Story . . . Part Five (Perhaps the Penultimate Part!)

Two months ago I wrote a series of blog posts, "It's a Long Story." The first one is here, and there are four consecutive parts.

At this point, I have completed the five "shadow shifts" that my nurse manager wanted me to do, and have worked two twenty-four hour shifts solo. I love being a hospital chaplain. I absolutely love it.

My earliest training with Sister Angela has served me well (as have my four units of CPE and even my HELP Line training way back when we were childless and lived in Ohio). I often think of the things that Angela taught our little group of five new volunteers, things like "wear bright colors," and "never try to make it better." She also told us that if we had things weighing on us when we came in to work at the hospital, we should find one of the other chaplains and talk first before going up to the floor.

I've had a longing to reconnect with this mentor, to let her know what has finally become of me, and to try to tell her what an important role she played in my life and in my development. I started searching for her a few weeks ago and kept running into dead ends. Finally, last week, I was provided an email address. I sent an email saying I'd been thinking of her and would like to get together. She wrote back the very next day! She is retired and lives about an hour from where I live. We're scheduled to get together at the end of next month. I can't wait!