Biggest Friend

I have continued to spend time with Phumlani, one of the male patients in the care centre that I have written about on previous posts.

His health has gotten worse since I last updated. He’s been taking ARV’s for a little more than a month and he has suffered many side effects from them. Some days he can’t eat anything and other days it’s very little he can eat. He spends most of his days sleeping right now. He told me recently that he hates sleep. I let him know that’s when the body heals so to hang on to that and not give up. He made a comment that his life is not that important. I felt him giving up on becoming strong again. That day I actually made him promise me that he would not give up. He has not.

Last week he told me that one of the American’s brought him a picture. He asked me to get it out of his nightstand. The photo was of him and one of the adult team members from Lake Pointe. As I got out the photo, I noticed that what I was taking it out of was a journal he’d started. I asked if I could read it and he said yes. Not too far into his entries I was mentioned. Well, “Emmie” was mentioned. That’s how he says my name, so that’s how he spelled it! He talked about how his stomach was upset that day “but my biggest friend Emmie brings me juice to drink…” I am taking “biggest friend” to mean “best friend”. ;) Another entry stated that he was “very sad because Emmie left today without saying bye to me”. Well just break my heart…when I asked him when that was he knew exactly what happened when I left without saying goodbye. WOW. I am now very sure that I go see him and say goodbye.

And I never stop praying for him. Never. I pray I have seen him at his lowest…crying on my arm because he had to be in a wheelchair to go to chapel service because his feet were so swollen. He hates the wheelchair. And I hate seeing him in it.

Please continue to pray for my special friend.