Eons ago I was teaching OB Nursing in northwestern Ohio. I usually went to the hospital where we had our clinical rotation an hour before the students did, so I could have plenty of time to pick out their patient assignments, and match up each student’s leaning needs with an appropriate patient. This particular Thursday morning, as I was figuring their assignments, a nurse aide named Ruby walked up to me, and looked me straight in the eyes. She took my hand and said, “I was awakened last night by God, and He told me to tell you that your parents are OK. They are safe. You don’t have to worry about them.”

Now, no one had ever said anything like that to me before, so I could have thought she was looney. However, when I was in the 10^th grade, Rosie, a family friend of ours, put her hands on my forehead, and prayed for my migraine headaches to go away. After that, I never had another one! And Rosie said she knew President Kennedy was gonna get shot ‘cause God told her, and she wished she had called the White House some how and warned them. Rosie felt really bad about that.

So, when Ruby imparted these words to me, I didn’t think she was crazy. I just wondered what she meant. I wasn’t worried about my parents even before she came up to me, so I smiled and said, “Thanks.”

‘Round about 11am, as my eight students and I were busy doing whatever, the secretary at the nursing station held the handle of the phone up really high and yelled at me to come get the phone.

“Hello?” I said.

“Patty, It’s Mary (my older sister). I just want you to know that Mom and Dad are OK. Don’t worry about them. They are safe.” (What is this with people today? Everyone seems to be more concerned about my parents than I am.)

“Mary- you’re the second person today to have said that. What is going on?”

“Mom and Dad called me from Guatemala and said they are OK. The hotel where they were supposed to stay at Mexico City- the one that was totally demolished by that massive earthquake this morning – they weren’t in it! They were supposed to be in Mexico City last night. They were supposed to stay at this hotel, but their plane in Guatemala had engine trouble, so they had to spend another night in Guatemala. They’re alive! Everyone in that hotel in Mexico City died.”

“Wow”  was all I could get out.

Mary said, “I’m the second person to tell you? How can that be? They just got through to me and asked that I call everyone.”

“Uh- my friend here at work said God told her last night that they were OK. But Ruby didn’t know any more than that. She didn’t know they were traveling. She’s never even met Mommy and Daddy.”

And “Wow” was all that Mary could say too.