At some point in most of our lives, we have this conversation with the unknown.
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Story created & performed by: Aaron Calafato
Audio Production: Ken Wendt
Original Art: Pete Whitehead
Additional Vocals: Cori Birce
7MSSeason2FinaleThePrayer.mp3 - powered by Happy Scribe
You're listening to 7 Minute Stories with Aaron Calafato. Visit our website, 7minutestories.com. That's the number 7minutestories.com to see the awesome new merch available this season. Choose from stickers, koozies, t-shirts, tote bags and more. I have to say the tote bag is my favorite. This episode, The Prayer.
It's always struck me how vulnerable somebody looks when they're laying in a hospital bed. It doesn't even have to be for anything serious. It could be for a blood draw, it could be for something simple. But you take a person, you put them on their couch at home and put a little blanket over them, and then take that picture. Then you take a picture of them laying in a hospital bed with the hospital blanket over them, two totally different stories.
Put Hulk Hogan in the hospital bed, it's that same story and that's how my grandmother looked. Not like Hulk Hogan, she looked like my grandmother, but she was scared because she was getting ready for heart surgery, major heart surgery. I was in the hospital room, so was Corey. We woke up at 03:00 AM, drove her there, did all the admissions at the Cleveland Clinic, got her ready for a 05:00 AM surgery. We were exhausted, and we were just trying to fill the space with conversation that kept her in a good state of mind.
I'm not going to sit there and talk about the risks that are involved. You try to navigate so that you make the person feel comfortable, make them feel loved and optimistic in spite of how vulnerable and scared they are. I was trying to do my best. I was making jokes, and I said something like, "Hey, Grandma, it's a young age to be getting a surgery like this." But the thing is that she was relatively healthy, very heathy for most of her life up until this point.
It wasn't even that she was unhealthy. She just had this heart condition that started, and her doctor said that it was very risky if she didn't have the surgery. Even though it was risky to have the surgery, especially at her age, that the outcome likely would be good and that she could have many more years, so she took that gamble and there we were. Next thing you know, there's a knock on the door. I turn around, and it's the guy with the little white collar around his neck, the chaplain. He smiles at us, says hello, looks at my grandmother and says, "Hey, you want me to come in and say a prayer for you?" My grandmother says, "Of course". She invites him in. I don't know what denomination he was or whatever, Christian, I'm assuming. My grandmother's Catholic, so they had a connection there.
He goes and sits next to her on the hospital bed. As soon as he does, she just puts her hand on his hand and holds it there. He begins to recite the Lord's Prayer. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. I bow my head, and Corey does the same, but I'm peeking out through one of my eyes 'cause I felt like I needed to see this. I'm watching my grandma receive this prayer, and something all of a sudden hit me, it was a very profound insight that there was this person that, look, on its surface it just looks like a thing that you do, these customs that we have. But in that moment, I really examined it and I was like, there's this person who we don't know who's coming into the room, my grandma's welcoming him and I see her holding his hand, and she's holding his hand and squeezing it.
I'm looking at my grandma, and she doesn't look older, seasoned, whatever she wants me to call her, she doesn't look like a grandma. She looked like a child. I don't mean that disrespectfully, but just in the sense of how she was holding his hand and how she had given herself to this moment of prayer it was like a weird transformation. She looked like she was like four or five years old. Her eyes were closed and she was so intentional about listening to this prayer.
As that's hitting me I'm being distracted by other sounds in the hallway. It's not just the regular hospital sounds. In fact, in this moment that was happening, the hospital sound began to soften and I could hear the prayer that was going on with my grandma. Then I could also start hearing other prayers happening down the hallway. I could hear one prayer happening that was in a different language, I could hear one that was a bunch of people praying, but it was almost like a mantra, different religion than I've heard before, but it was just a mantra of people in one room praying together. It was quite beautiful. Then I could hear another room, it wasn't like a prayer or an official prayer. It was just a really poignant conversation between two people and I could hear one of them say, when they put you to sleep, I'll be here, I promise. When you wake up, I'll be here. I will never, never leave you and I love you.
It was like hearing that, witnessing that, even from a different room, it was so sacred. Take away all the religiosity and all the dogma of whatever room, whatever prayer, including the prayer that's happening in my grandmother's room, take away all of that, they all in my ears came together like a chorus. They all came together and the sounds merged together if that makes sense. It lost its linguistic meaning, and it just had this one tonality, and so fascinating they all sounded the same.
The tonality all sounded the same, and the only way I can describe it, the sound is just human beings, the sounds of human beings calling out for hope in the face of the unknown. As soon as the chaplain ended the prayer with my grandmother, it's like it snapped me out of it, but I could never forget what I just felt in those few moments. Next thing I know, there's a really muscular guy standing in the room next to my grandmother, and he's going to wheel her to her surgery.
She says bye to the chaplain, thanks him, I give her a hug and a kiss, Cori does the same thing, and this guy wheels her out. I could hear her making comments about how strong his arms are. Then she says something to the extent of, well, I hope when I wake up for my surgery that you'll be right next to me, and I hope that you're there. She breaks attention there, it was really awesome. It was the last words that we heard as she was being wheeled down the hallway. I don't know if it was the prayers or just the incredible skills of the doctors, but her surgery went great and grandma's doing fine.
We've reached the end of Season 2 of 7 Minute Stories. I can't thank you enough for listening every single week and making me a part of your life. If I may, I'd like to say I hope and I pray that you have an amazing summer and that if you're facing any challenges, as we all do and will, whatever they are, from the bottom of my heart, I wish you nothing but grace and love.
I will talk to you in September for the start of Season 3 of 7 Minute Stories. More stories every week starting in September. Thank you so much. I'll talk to you soon.
7 Minute Stories is created and performed by Aaron Calafato. Audio production by Ken Wendt. You can connect with Ken or inquire about his audio production services at kenwendt.com. That's Ken W-E-N-D-T.com. Original artwork by Pete Whitehead. Find out more about Pete's work at petewhitehead.com Special thanks to our partners at Evergreen Podcast. Lastly, I'm Cori Birce. Make sure to tune in next week for another story.
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