Special Food Brings Special Encounter

 

On February 11 the Greensboro region served dinner to the guests of the Family House in the Greensboro area in honor of the feast day of our Lady of Lourdes. The Family House is a home away from home for families undergoing medical treatment (primarily radiation and chemotherapy) for extended periods of time.

 

The house draws families primarily from the 500-mile radius of the Baptist Hospital Cancer Center and the Cancer Center at Novant Medical Center, both located in Winston-Salem. 

 

Often the patients’ taste buds are nearly shot from the cancer treatments they receive.  So, local members and their spouses decided to provide a complete breakfast for these special guests with delicate tastes. The meal consisted of Home-cooked casseroles by the score, eggs with sausage, eggs with pineapple, bacon and eggs, french toast, pancakes with blueberries, ham, fried chicken, hash browns, bacon, muffins, danish, bulging bowls  of fruit salad and various juices. The guests absolutely loved it.

 

Many of the Knights and Dames serving breakfast joined the guests at their tables.  One sat down with a mother alone who told him her 24-year-old son was upstairs resting from his radiation treatments. (He was halfway through 40 scheduled.) While completing his masters degree in drone engineering at Virginia Tech University he was diagnosed with cancer of the tongue and surrounding lymph nodes. 

 

The young man eventually joined his mother, tired, worn out and very thin after not eating for a long period, and now hungry for what was on the table. “Your food tonight was just what I was craving to eat", he said, after being served his choice of foods that pleased his last buds. He said he would be returning after watching an ACC basketball game, for another round of ice cream.

 

The young man added that some of his classmates were now employed at space launching companies and that he was sad not to be with them.

 

The Knight at the table with mother and son responded with an analogy. “God sent his apostles out to the world to begin their work for him,” he said. “Your buddies are now checking out their career choices and can be your eyes and ears for you. They will evaluate their skill sets, their ‘fit’ inside these giants in the industry.  Just what kind of a place are these companies to actually work for?  How are their medical benefits? 

 

“From your friends’ feedback, you will be able to evaluate and determine where you want to spend your long productive life.”  

 

A big smile came across the young man’s face, followed by a handshake and a hug.