Still very busy here. It is a pivotal time to be coming on board with the company. It is sometimes stressful, always busy, but as always, when you work with the public, there are stories.
I saw two women waiting for their prescription. Turns out they were picking up for their sister. She had a number of prescriptions, but when I set them all on the counter, the two sisters put their heads together and said, "No..." and "No..." and "Doesn't need this one..." etc. etc. There was a lot of emotion that I wasn't quite understanding, but of all of the prescriptions, they found the powerful pain killers, and that is what they wanted.
One of the sisters stared at me and asked, "You're Debby, right..." and I stared right back at the vaguely familiar face and in the lines, I recognized an old friend. I greeted her warmly, and her eyes began to fill up. Her sister was dying. They had just found out that very morning. She had weeks to live. Her maintenance prescriptions were no longer necessary. Her sister was dying.
I was at a loss of what to say. I never know what to say in times like that. My eyes got teary too, and I could only say, "Oh, I am so terribly, terribly sorry!"
She smiled through all those tears, and she said, "We're going to the beach. We're headed out this very day. My brothers and sisters are already down there waiting for us. She wants very badly to go, and we couldn't think of a single reason to tell her no."
I told my friend that I was so glad that she was able to have this time with her sister. "I hope that you all have the time of your lives," and she assured me that this was the plan.
Later, restocking the medications back in the quiet storage area, I took a moment to pray for them, all of them, and I cried a little too. It is a marvelous gift to have such a close knit family that you wanted nothing more than to spend your final days surrounded by them, immersed in the love of your family.
Then I took a moment to pray to God for my own beloved sister.