A Dying Woman
[Adventures in Faith: India; 1991] I was doing volunteer work at a hospital. One day I found an elderly couple lying on the pavement. They were dying. The woman’s death was imminent.
One day I arrived at Patel Community Hospital for the day’s volunteer work. Walking into the parking lot, I noticed a man and a woman lying in the middle of the pavement.
They were alone. Nobody was doing anything about them.
I hurried to them. I found an old man and an old woman. They were probably Hindu, based on the woman having a red bindi.
A bindi is a dot between the eyebrows. It is worn by females. Most often it is worn by Hindu females. It signifies the third-eye chakra. If it is red, it also signifies marriage.
Their clothing was ragged and dirty. Based on the piercings in her earlobes, the woman had worn earrings. But today there were no earrings. Or other jewelry of any kind.
They were obviously poor people. They were probably homeless.
Homeless people often can’t put their money in a bank. That is because they don’t have a permanent address. And also because they might not have enough money to start a bank account.
So homeless families often save money by buying bits of jewelry. Those bracelets or earrings are the life savings of the family, and they are entrusted to the wife. If need be, she can sell them during hard times.
But the old woman’s jewelry was all gone. I suspected it was robbed.
We were strangers to each other. She seemed very close to death. So I offered her whatever I could at the moment.
I cradled this elderly woman in my arms.
She seemed thirsty. From my water bottle, I offered her a drink of water. She whispered, “Nundri,” which means “Thank-you” in the Tamil language.
Moments later, she died.
I believe that homeless old Hindu woman was blessed, when she passed into eternity, like the people in this Bible verse:
They’ll come leaping for joy as I take their hands and lead them, lead them to fresh flowing brooks, lead them along smooth, uncluttered paths.
– Jeremiah 31:9, The Message translation
ADVENTURES IN FAITH
NOTE. Names, dates, and locations may have been changed.
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