Underwear Lady

I need your writing gifts out there..people. I spent the day at the Mayo with my mom and dad. I don't have the energy to write about that. It was a very difficult day today. (You can see the FCC post..I toned it down a bit for the congregation....emotionally....it was exhausting.) Anyway....the "other" story.

So I met my mom's new friend on the cancer floor. She also has acute leukemia and has been in the hospital for over a month. She's mid-fifties, mother of three grown children, and an administrator of a christian school for 20 years. She is currently bald as a sweet nurse helped to shave her head because she kept finding clumps of hair on her shoulder and that was devastating to her. She is awaiting a bone transfer from her brother, she just has to get strong enough to take it. It's sitting in a freezer in a zip lock bag with her name on it.

This sweet woman is called, "Underwear Lady" because all of her friends and family have been anonymously sending her new underwear as a joke. She has bikinis, thongs, striped, hand decorated, grandma bloomers..maybe 30 pair. Her sisters pinned them up on her hospital curtain and many of them have crazy sayings attached. The best part is, when she walks the halls she takes the iv cart with her that is fully decorated with sexy lacy undies, boxers...all kinds of crazy underwear. She herself is not attached to the iv pole anymore, she just pushes it to bring people joy. She said, she carries around her underwear so that everyone will be curious, come into her room, and read the daily Bible verse up on her wall and they will experience Jesus.

She told many funny stories about the doctor's reactions, etc. One nurse comes in more than necessary just to be around this amazing woman. She is full of joy, laughter, yet her pain and grief are real. She looked me in the eyes and told me that it was all going to be okay. Even if my dad died suddenly, God was still good and we were going to be okay. Coming from this woman, it meant so much. We hugged, we cried, she told me that she loved me and my mom and if we needed anything at all, to call her in the middle of the night. She would pray. This saint, who has her own burden to bear, wants to lift us up. Only God could put that kind of love into someone who doesn't even know us. She told us that we were family. And, because of Jesus, she is right.

I told her underwear lady wasn't a good enough name for her....as I was walking out, she said, "Lingerie...and all I could think of was Lunatic". We laughed and laughed. But, she still needs a classy name. Can you guys help me think of one?