A Byte of Soul Food!

-- To get 'u' out of Monday 'mourning'!

ONE RED ROSE

--By Eva Mae Ramsey

            In the mid-1960s my husband's sister Muriel became very ill. My husband and six-year-old daughter, Linda, and I travelled to Tulsa to be present while Muriel underwent surgery for a diseased kidney. As we neared Tulsa, a thought flashed into my mind out of nowhere. One red rose, a voice said. Take one red rose to Muriel. My husband agreed to stop at a florist's shop. However, it was late and everything was closed.

            The next morning my husband went to the hospital to wait during the operation. I stayed with Linda and my husband's elderly mother at her home. All I could think of was that red rose. I felt compelled to search out that rose. So Linda and I walked uptown, and I bought one red rose.

            When my husband returned, he said that Muriel had come through the surgery, and it was now touch-and-go as to whether she'd recover. He also told me he'd ordered a big bouquet of gladiolas for Muriel's room.

            "That's lovely, honey," I said. "But she's got to have this red rose, too." When we went to the hospital later, Muriel was still groggy and wasn't able to talk to us, but I put the rose , by itself, in a vase where she could see it. Because of work commitments we had to return home without ever talking to Muriel, but we did learn that she would recover.

            Soon we got a letter, "Before I went to the hospital," Muriel wrote, "I prayed that if I was supposed to live, God would send me a sign I specifically asked for, something that meant God was with me and would give me the heart to go on. When I opened my eyes after the operation, there it was the very thing I'd prayed for--a red rose."