Dr. Bob: Miracle Man

Yeah the title is supposed to be ambiguous. It is his title for the person he met, but I think many of us who know Dr. Bob would put him in that catergory as well!

MIRACLE MAN
It was on Wednesday, mid week, when I had time off and had the priviledge of sharing lunch at a local restaurant (the first such for me, in Biloxi, since I arrived here in September - "where's the time?). Local resident and friend Lee Smith joined me. Some of you may remember Lee's story, as told in one of my letters a couple of months ago: A man in his 50's with endstage cancer and malfuntioning heart valve, whose greatest hope is for his 2 daughters (living and being schooled in Houston since the hurricane), while he lives in a tiny trailer on the site of his former home, totally destroyed down to a slab by Katrina. Lee has been slowly, methodically, and persistantly pursuing every angle to find a way, and the money, to build a new house, and home, on the site where he lived most of his life, in the town where his 11 siblings, mother, father, and grandparents lived out their lives. This he is doing so that his daughters, age 17, and 14 will have a home, at their homeplace, before, and after he dies. The prospect of death has its daily presence around Lee, because of the extent of his disease. However, his life is sustained by the hope of providing a future for his girls, in their home town, and at their homeplace.
Two hour phone conversations are the norm for Lee - with his girls - as they exchange news, speak supportive and encouraging words, cry their tears of separation, worry, and a deep caring love for one another, made only more melancholy by their awareness of Lee's mortality.
So, where is the "miracle" in this MIRACLE MAN ? Lee does not tell his story as a great and important public figure who has done marvelous things for the world or his community. He is quiet, unassuming, humble, with a practical and homespun intelligence and wisdom. This is attributes to his being blessed by God, by being held up, saved, protected and rescued several times over from near death - for a purpose. "God has a purpose in mind for me - there is something he wants me to do before he takes me away, why else would he have rescued me all these times".
Eighteen years ago, Lee had much of his Colon and abdominal Lymph nodes removed for Cancer. He had peritonitis from a subsequent bowel perforation, lay comatose, septic and near death for weeks in a hospital in Houston, far from his family. Lee survived. He underwent rigorous and sickening Chemotherapy. Lee survived, "though I liked to give up and die after each treatment", he says. Two years ago he was told of 'tumors' growing in his liver - a new Cancer?. He has been receiving montly Chemotherapy since, and "it lays me low and keeps me from getting fat by overeating" for a week afterward. Last year he developed a leaking heart valve, hhad congestive failure, was severly short of breath, and had at least one Cardiac arrest after hip replacement surgery. He has been advised against heart surgery for fear of dying at the attempt.
Lee's wife, mother of his two daughters, walked out on the family when the girls were preschool age. Lee has been their faithful father and 'mother' all these years, seeing to their well-being. schooling, feeding, clothing, entertainment, and "even combing and brushing their hair before school in the morning".
Lee lived in a tent and with friends before Fema sent his trailer, nearly 8 weeks after Katrina. He applied for this and other 'assistance' , repeatedly turned away with the strongly worded statement that he "should go out and find a job", since he was "well enough to come to the FEMA office often enough to bother them" with questions and inquiries about his trailer and benefits. Lee has recieved no money from FEMA ["you get social securuity disability benefits] desoite the fact that, like all the other residents in his devastated and flooded neighborhood, all of his worldly possessions were washed away, including his cars AND his homeowners insurance will pay not a penny on the "settlement" that all was damage due to flooding.

Lee reiterated this , and told many other parts of his life story, as we enjoyed a typical business lunch (sans alcohol) in a typical suburban Ruby Tuesdays restaurant. He even managed to smile and laugh a bit as we compared family antics and accomplishments, and our pride in them. Lee said, in his simple, yet profound wise and philosphical manner, how God had protected him, that his family and especially his daughters are his life's treasures, and how he will work as hard as he can, " as long as the good Lord wants me to", to take care of his girls, help his brothers and sisters, his church and neighbor friends, to the best of his ability, until the Lord decides his work is done. There is little doubt in my mind that this MIRACLE MAN, as a walking and working miracle will do just that.

Here on the Mississippi Gulf Coast there are hundreds of MIRACLE MEN AND WOMEN, quietly, faithfully, and successfully, working miracles. They are doing this with the power of the love of others and the love from God.
Thanks be to God that they are here, at this time, for there are still a lot of "miracles" that need to happen to save the fallen, the downtrodden, the least, the lost, and the [nearly] wiped out. Pray and hope for them, and don't forget them.

BOB