……in my doctor’s waiting room, just an hour ago. I was there to ‘formally’ get the surgeon’s opinion from the appointment a couple of months’ back, concerning replacing my knees, which I turned down, (though very kindly she’s left the door open for me to call ‘at any time’ and she’ll fit me in as an emergency!). My doctor is lovely – Dr Omar Mohammed: I’ve grown really fond of him in the 18 months since he took the place of my retired doctor, and he’s fitted me in – a UK GP! – tomorrow (good job miracles still happen! – I never make it to the ‘minor ops’ clinic as they book a month ahead, and normally I’m away somewhere or other!) to give my knees an injection or two so that I have a week to let the cortisone ‘settle’ before heading off to Colombia next week….
BUT…in the waiting room – quite full at one point, a lovely, lovely gentleman started to sing…. I can’t quite remember if it was a ‘Billy Graham Crusade’ choir hymn, or a Dick Saunders ‘Way to Life’ Crusade choir hymn (it WAS a long time ago!!)…. ‘Heaven came down and Glory filled my soul… there at the Cross the Saviour made me whole…my sins were washed away, my night was turned to day, Heaven came down and Glory filled my soul….’ IT WAS BEAUTIFUL. I joined in…. 🙂 – then came ‘Give me oil in my lamp, keep me burning, give me oil in my lamp I pray…. keep me burning til the break of day’. It DID bring Heaven down, at least for me, and a few others whose faces went from stern, pained, and blank, to smiles…. I tried to think of that happening in my old doctor’s surgery in Worthing, and couldn’t, really… it’s one of the lovely things about Norn Iron that makes it different to the rest of the union….
Sadly, Omar told me he leaves at the end of May, to take up practice in Perth, Western Australia. I told him I’d have to book a few days ahead to get to see him now! He is SUCH a lovely man, and I’ll miss him – as I will my fantastic, lovely dentist, from whom I got a letter this week saying he’s retiring :(. He’s brilliant, he’s quick, he’s friendly, he’s been my dentist for 30 years, AND his name is BEAN, Martin Bean….how cool is it to say your dentist is Mr Bean??? No longer, from 14 April though…. :(. I’m sure Mr Madhu Kalakonda will be great – the Grand Avenue Dental Practice has a great reputation, and Marin wouldn’t have sold his half of the practice lightly… but I’ll miss him, too…. So, my appointment on 16 June is 2 months too late for my check up, and for my visit to the sadist, sorry, Hygenist…. maybe now I nee a dentist in Norn Iron, too…
But I’m still smiling at that lovely brother in the waiting room…. he really doesn’t know, I’m sure, just what his song (well sung, too!) did for me in lifting my spirits (not that I was ‘down’, but he took me to a new level!). How beautiful….how lovely in the doctor’s waiting room is the voice of him who sings good news….
