Happy Birthday Toni

My dear friend, Toni, is celebrating her 91st birthday today, July 29th. Toni was my neighbor for five years, until I moved to Florida last September, and our relationship is a special one. Toni is a widow, she has one married son and two grandchildren. She has no other family and all of her close friends have died.

She doesn't like to cook, and I enjoy cooking and serving people, so I would invite her to dinner as often as our schedule would allow. After dinner she always cleared the table and helped clean up before we had dessert. Often, I would make extra to send home with her for the next day. Dinners at my house became the highlight of her otherwise solitary life and she sang our praises to anyone who would stay still long enough to listen. I often included her in visits with my grandsons and during the summer she would swim in the pool with them. She took care of me in very neighborly ways. Each week she deposited the community paper in my mailbox, she gathered my mail when I went away and kept a watch out for my home, she didn't like gardening so I planted flowers for the both of us and she watered it faithfully. One memorable service she performed for us was on the day of my daughter's wedding. Laurie has a little dog, Toby, and we needed a sitter for him on that day. I asked Toni if she would take him for a walk in the evening for us. "I've never walked a dog in my life but I would be happy to learn," she said. And the day before Laurie's wedding Toni came to take Toby for a practice walk! She did a very good job (she ended up taking him for several walks throughout the day) and thanked us for trusting her with Toby.

We only visited by phone over the winter. I reserved my short winter trips to NJ for my children, grandchildren and siblings.

Since June, when I returned to NJ, I have visited with her weekly. Other than one lunch at a local restaurant, each week she provides and serves lunch for us at her house. She insists on doing all the work, she obviously enjoys taking care of me. Other than a visit from her son once every three weeks for about an hour, I am the only company she gets - and,I suspect, I am the only one who hugs her.

The first week I visited, she told me the bad news of having been diagnosed with breast cancer and that nothing can be (or will be) done. The doctor has not told her how long she has left to live. She is still quite surprised that she has cancer - she's had good health all her life, she exercised regularly, instructed a yoga class for seniors for the past 25 years, and maintained a healthy, nutritious diet.

She says that my moving away was the first bad thing to happen to her. Her oncology appointment was scheduled for the day after I moved. When she told me about the cancer, she said "First you moved, then I found out I had cancer".

She told me that her hot water heater leaked and needed to be replaced. She began by saying, "First you moved..."

She had a problem with her heat and needed to call an electrician. She said, "First you moved..."

Her smoke alarm went off during the night last April - she called 911 and they summoned the fire department. She told me about this incident by saying, "First you moved..."

I know she cares about me and misses me very much. She has told me more than once she thinks of me as the daughter she never had. I care about her, too.

She talks incessantly when I visit. About her life, past and present. She is Jewish and left Germany in 1941 - an "organization" safely delivered her and her husband to Switzerland and they stayed there for a year until their quota number came up and they were allowed to immigrate to the US. She said recently she saw a woman her age, a Holocaust survivor, on TV. She told me that the woman talked about things she saw during that time. Toni's eyes were bright as she looked past me and said thoughtfully, "I saw those things too". We stayed silent for some time then.

I have been concerned about Toni's eternal home and the Lord provided a beautiful opportunity for me to share the gospel with Toni and tell her about Jesus, the Messiah. She listened intently and then I asked her if she would take time to think about the possibility of Jesus being the Messiah. She said she would think about it and I believe she has and is still considering the answers I gave to her questions. That is my responsibility, the rest is God's. He is faithful to be found by those who call upon Him.

If you think of her, please pray for Toni. Pray that she will receive Jesus as Savior/Messiah. Pray that her son and daughter-in-law and grandchildren will make the most of the time she has left and spend it with her. That is the desire of her heart, to be with the very small family she has. She asked me to pray that God, in His mercy, would take her in her sleep.