The Miracle on Central Avenue

A while ago, I was in a Zoom class where the instructor asked if we had ever experienced a miracle in our lives. This event rushed back into my mind. It fills my heart and gives me great peace. I have to share it with you.

It was a dark and dingy night …

about 13 years ago when it happened. But wait, let me give you a little back story.

I live in Toledo, OH. But I was born and raised as an only child in Washington, DC. My parents lived there and when my Dad died, Mom sold the house and moved into an apartment. I tried to talk her into moving to Toledo then, but she had all her friends and a few remaining family members in that area.

About 20 years later, almost all of them were gone and I renewed my campaign to get her to move to Toledo. Her health was OK, but not great. Her final resistance was she wanted to be buried in the cemetery next to my Dad and needed to be sure that the burial would follow all the Jewish traditions. So I spoke to her Rabbi and then to the local funeral home that handled Jewish burials here. I had the Rabbi talk to them and he was assured that everything would be ‘kosher’. I asked the Rabbi to reassure my Mom who finally relented.

She moved here and spent her last 4 years here. My wife and I were able to support her through her last couple years dealing with a couple of strokes.

When she died, all the arrangements had already been made so I just had to make a couple of phone calls and sign some papers.

When I went to the funeral home in Toledo to sign papers and pay them, the man I was dealing with asked me if I knew a particular person. (I’ll call her JS since I can’t get in touch with her to ask her permission to use her name.) I said “Yes”. He told me that she was the head of the group of volunteers who sit with the bodies awaiting burial in the funeral home. This is a part of the Jewish burial tradition that my Mom wanted to have in place. When JS saw my Mom’s name she asked the funeral director if that was my Mother. So he was letting me know.

When I was on the faculty of the local Medical school, JS was on the Nursing faculty and we both attended the Conservative Synagogue for a time and worked together for their weekly Bingo game. I always liked and her and even though I hadn’t seen her since my retirement (at least 10 years earlier), I really felt a sweetness that someone who I felt warmly connected with was watching over my Mom’s body, especially since I knew that this tradition meant a lot to Mom. These feelings all came up even though I hadn’t seen or talked to JS in, probably, 15 years.

Mom’s funeral took place without a hitch. All our family was there and that was a comfort.
When I get back to Toledo, one of the things I still had to do was empty the remaining few things out of my her apartment at the Nursing home. I resisted that because getting rid of that apartment and her few remaining things felt like I was wiping out her life. Resist, resist … and then the last day before we had to pay another month’s rent I did it with a heavy heart.

When I left the facility it was dinner time so I decided to go to a restaurant nearby that my Mom had enjoyed. The restaurant was on Central Avenue. It was a place where you ordered at a counter and they gave you a number and brought your food to your table.

Abra-Cadabra …

I was standing at the counter ordering when I heard the voice of a woman from my past ordering her dinner just 2 feet away. I knew that voice and turned to see JS. To say I was flabbergasted is a gross understatement.

I just have to list the circumstances that qualify this as a Miracle:

• I had just closed my Mom’s apartment with a heavy heart
• I was ordering my dinner at her favorite nearby restaurant
• I overheard a woman ordering her dinner 2 feet away from me
• It was a woman who watched over my Mom’s body in the funeral home as part of the Jewish burial tradition,
• I knew this woman well and liked her but had not seen her in 15 years.

What are the odds that all of that would be in the same place at the exact same time on that night after all that time? Coincidence? I don’t think so!!

No one could convince me that this was a coincidence! No way, José!

I was literally dumbstruck. It is one of the very few times I couldn’t get any words to come out of my mouth. I literally struggled to say her name. She heard me stammering and turned and reached out to me while I was trying to pick my jaw off the floor. A while later, I recovered enough to go to her table and tell her what had just happened for me.

I don’t know if a bunch of angels arranged that to have some fun, or if it was my Mom telling me that she was fine. I don’t know what it was. But I do know what it wasn’t. It was NOT a coincidence. No way.

“There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” 
~ Albert Einstein

It was a miracle. Nothing less. So according to the wise quote above, that means everything is a miracle.

Think about that for a few minutes, repeat it a few times today. Look at something, any thing, and ask yourself: “What about this ________ makes it a miracle?” Ask seriously and listen for the answer.

It gives me peace to know that there are miracles. It gives me peace to know that someone/something much bigger and wiser than me is watching over me and prepared to drop a miracle in my path to reassure me that all will be well. “It’s OK, Jerry!”

Thanks for giving me the opportunity to share this.

Have you ever had your ‘socks knocked off’ by a miracle? Feel free to comment.