My seven-year-old son, Shane, made it through a four-hour operation to remove a brain tumor. \u201cBut we won\u2019t know whether the tumor was malignant until tomorrow,\u201d the doctor said.<\/p>\n
That night I didn\u2019t leave Shane\u2019s bedside. Around midnight an intensive-care nurse suggested I go home to try to get some rest. \u201cHere\u2019s the phone number of the hospital,\u201d she said, handing me a piece of paper. \u201cYou can call us anytime.\u201d<\/p>\n
I hated to leave, but I had been awake for more than 24 hours, so I went to my house, where I dozed fitfully. Somewhere around 6:00 A.M. I dialed the number the nurse had given me. When a female voice answered I identified myself as Shane\u2019s mother. \u201cHow is he?\u201d the woman asked.<\/p>\n
I was puzzled. \u201cIs this Children\u2019s Memorial Hospital?\u201d \u201cHoney, this is no hospital,\u201d the woman said. \u201cWe\u2019re just a group of women who heard about your son and decided to keep a prayer chain going for him. My friends and I have been on our knees all night praying for that little boy and one of us just asked God to give us a sign that he had heard. Then you called. Praise the Lord.\u201d<\/p>\n
The tumor was benign and Shane made a miraculous recovery. I\u2019ve tried to get back in touch with that woman: I\u2019ve dialed every possible variation of the hospital\u2019s number and never again heard her beautiful, velvety voice. But I\u2019ll feel connected to her always.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My seven-year-old son, Shane, made it through a four-hour operation to remove a brain tumor. \u201cBut we won\u2019t know whether the tumor was malignant until tomorrow,\u201d the doctor said. That night I didn\u2019t leave Shane\u2019s bedside. Around midnight an intensive-care nurse suggested I go home to try to get some rest. \u201cHere\u2019s the phone number […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[397],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[626],"class_list":["post-25045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-quotes-verses"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n