Practicing What You Preach. Vanessa Davis Griggs
he tried to laugh it off like he was merely joking, I didn’t appreciate his sense of humor one bit.”
Well, that was the last straw for Dr. Brewer, and the last time he allowed one of his patients to go through anything like that. He informed me he would be moving back into his own private practice again. And when it was time for that patient’s six-week checkup, our new office is where she came.
“I’d rather get a backup to fill in for me when I can’t be there than to have my patients go through something like that ever again,” Dr. Brewer said. I think he hated that practice as much as his patients did.
If you knew Dr. Brewer, you would have known he wouldn’t stay with those others for too long. I’ve worked for him for ten years. He was impressed with my skills and hired me right after I graduated from high school. I can say this with conviction: he truly cares about the people who come to him. I think it broke his heart to have those patients who had sought him out—including one who had been with him from the beginning of his twenty-three-year practice—have their babies delivered by one of the other doctors. He’s just that kind of physician, a relationship doctor. Dr. Brewer cares about people.
His love for people is why I think he lets Marcus come and talk with him as much as he does. Although I wholly admit that Marcus also seems to be a nice guy. Maybe nice people just need to learn how to tell people to take a hike—in a nice way, of course. I’m working on that myself. It’s too bad Marcus is divorced. I was totally feeling him. In fact, I was starting to believe he may have been sent to me by God, an answer to a prayer.
Oh well, I’m sure one of these days the right man will come along for me. I just need to wait on the Lord, although it is getting hard. And I know You know this already, Lord, but I’m not getting any younger down here.
In the meantime, I have this big wedding to pull off in stellar fashion. Angela’s family will begin arriving next week for the wedding. The rehearsal and rehearsal dinner are scheduled for that Friday night. With the wedding party Angela was having along with all of her and Brent’s families, the rehearsal dinner was proving to be almost as large and as much work as the actual wedding and reception.
One positive thing about being this close to the wedding is that I will be too busy to dwell on what might have been with Marcus. After all, it was only one date. One date where we’d done nothing grand or spectacular other than go to Bible study and talk afterward while eating a burger.
Get over it, Peaches. Let’s move on. Peaches, are you listening? Forget about Marcus. Face it, it just wasn’t meant to be. Onward and upward! I said to myself.
The ringing phone cut through my thoughts like a hot knife through soft butter. I shook my head as I answered the phone. “Dr. Brewer’s office, this is Melissa speaking.”
Chapter 6
Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
—Galatians 6:2
Gayle Cane, Angela’s cousin from Asheville, North Carolina, arrived on Tuesday evening the week of the wedding. She had apparently decided to come early enough to help out wherever she could. She was staying at the designated hotel. Seeing it was needed, I took off the rest of the week starting Wednesday. To help out Angela, who was becoming more and more stressed as Saturday drew closer, I picked Gayle up from her hotel on my way to Angela’s apartment that morning.
Gayle told me she had been a home care nurse for an elderly woman for the past three and a half years. From what I gathered, Angela and this second cousin weren’t all that close, but Gayle needed to talk to Angela before everyone else arrived in town.
With so much to do and so little time to do it, I suppose that’s why I was around to hear most of their conversation. In and out of the room, working in my space away from Angela and Gayle as they feverishly arranged the names of those who had RSVP’d for the reception on the seating chart, I guess they must have forgotten I was there as their conversation grew deeper and more intense. I could have told Gayle that this really wasn’t a great time for talks, especially not ones rooted in family secrets.
Gayle was bringing Angela up to speed on things that had happened after Angela left Asheville four years ago.
“After Grandmother—well, your great-grandmother—died, you decided to leave and come to Birmingham to live,” the tall and rather slender Gayle said. “You know I bought her house to keep down all that confusion and arguing about who should inherit the house, since Grandmother didn’t have a will.”
“I know, and I appreciate you for stepping in and doing that. It’s amazing how people, family folks, start acting all crazy after a relative dies and has something everybody thinks they’re entitled to when they’re gone. I couldn’t believe how everybody started fussing and fighting after Great-granny died. I’m sure she never thought they would act in such a way.”
“I know. That’s why I just offered to buy the house outright at fair market price and let them divide up the money. Anyway, shortly after that, I took a job working for this woman named Sarah Fleming.”
“Sarah Fleming? You mean, the Sarah Fleming?” Angela asked.
“You knew her?”
Angela stopped writing and turned her full attention to Gayle. “Not personally, but I kind of know the story surrounding her. I was there at the beginning of things, when she first came back to Asheville. I was the one who took Johnnie Mae Landris to the house to meet Montgomery Powell the Second that first time she went to see him and to try and see Sarah after she moved back to Asheville. I never got to meet Sarah Fleming. So how did you end up working as a nurse for her?”
“Grandmother and I had this long talk. Do you remember when I came to visit her for two weeks right before she died?”
Angela thought, then nodded. “Yeah.”
“Well, she shared a lot of things with me, one of those being things about Sarah Fleming. Grandmother asked me to do her a favor. She said if there was ever a time I could do anything to help Sarah Fleming, to please do it, for her. So when I learned Sarah was looking for an in-home nurse, I applied for the position and got it.”
Angela started smiling. “So how is she to work for? I know their family was really rich.” Angela had put down her pen, and all I could think about was how much she wasn’t getting done. We had too much to do for this. And I wanted to make it to Bible study tonight.
Gayle smiled. “Sarah Fleming died a few months ago. But she was a remarkable woman. And I’m not just saying that to be polite, either. She was remarkable. Her mind was so sharp. She had a wonderful spirit, and she was loving and giving, not just to her family, but to people like me.” Gayle pressed her hand against her chest as she spoke.
“So where are you working now?” Angela asked, her eyes fixed on Gayle.
“I’m not working anywhere right now. I didn’t take off very much when I was working for Miss Fleming.” Gayle nodded. “That’s what I called her—old habits are hard to break. So I absolutely needed some time off to recuperate. She paid me for the time I never got to take, and on top of that, she left me money in her will, quite a bit, considering I wasn’t expecting anything. She was more than generous in what she paid for my services, more than generous. So I’m sitting pretty as I decide what I want to do next.”
Angela put the palms of her hands together and brought her fingers up to her bottom lip. “That has to be a great feeling. Knowing you don’t have to worry about money while you take your time to decide what you want to do next.”
When Angela brought her hands down, Gayle reached over and quickly squeezed one of them. “It really is. Besides giving me time to rest up, I can spend some time with family without having to worry about anything. I can visit my two adult children. They’re both out of college with great jobs now. My daughter, Sherrie, lives in California; my son, Patrick, in Chicago, is interested in politics. I’m healthy and blessed. Life is good.”
“I, for one, am glad