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We are again in Fourka. For the feast day of Saint Paisios, we went to Souroti, to the vigil. There were so many cars in the parking lots around the monastery... I had never seen so many cars in one place! How many people the love of Saint Paisios gathered... Incredible!!!
We had to leave the car at the entrance and walk to the monastery. Two of our five children stayed in the car because they had fallen asleep.
The service could be heard everywhere, through loudspeakers. The nuns sang from the heart and filled the air. But we, apart from „Kyrie Eleison” (“Lord have mercy”), understood nothing.
The church was full and already closed. At the tomb, there was a very, very long queue… so we didn't stay. We went back to the parking lot and stayed by the car. I fell asleep with the children, Daniel woke me up when the Liturgy began. We watched the service on the phone.
At one point, I wanted to get something from the car and, inadvertently, slammed the door on my hand. I caught a finger on my right hand. And… everything changed in an instant.
I screeeamed! Looooord, what pain!!!
What should I do now? What should we do? I couldn't think clearly anymore. We had nothing with us, nothing cold or that could help. I remembered seeing some first-aid tents, but they were up high, and those directing traffic didn't let us go up by car. I felt like I was going to faint. I thought my bone was broken and I would lose my finger! My finger throbbed intensely, and with it, my brain throbbed.
Daniel said it was better to go to the hospital, to Thessaloniki, to the emergency room, to get an X-ray. He put on Waze and we left. After about half an hour, we arrived in front of a hospital, but it was closed. The doorman wrote another hospital name on his phone.
I kept complaining and thinking they would put it in a cast or operate on me… And the well-known questions: „Why now? What temptation is this? What lesson? What did I do wrong?” and so on.
We arrived with difficulty, after entering some narrow and winding streets, because the road was under construction… A whole adventure, at night around 3:00 AM.
Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! The acute pain exhausted me.
When we arrived, I had to go inside alone. I entered the hospital, but through another entrance. It was deserted, not a soul, just many signs whose meaning I couldn't understand.
I wandered around aimlessly until a nurse appeared and guided me with gestures. I reached the patient reception area.
Suddenly, I was no longer a tourist, I was a patient. I received a wristband with a number, and that was it.
A heavy smell hit me, and the other people gathered together by pain. One with an IV drip, another on a stretcher, some asleep, others with their eyes on screens. A frail old man was barely breathing.
I was cold, hungry, sleepy, and a sense of alienation enveloped me in that cold and hostile environment.
I wanted to flee, but my finger was swollen and bruised, so I stayed.
It was as if I wasn't in Greece anymore…
I prayed to Saint Paisios and remembered some scenes from the film, when he too was in the hospital.
The orthopedic doctor was tired and immune to my pain. I think he had seen a lot in his life, although he was very young. I was also ashamed that I came before him with such a trifle. He sent me for an X-Ray elsewhere and I waited another hour to find out the result. In the meantime, Daniel appeared... His presence helped me a lot.
Then I found out my finger wasn't broken and I left at top speed. My heart felt lighter, and I thanked the Lord that I had gotten off so easily.
On the way to Fourka, I saw the sunrise! What a great blessing!
I believe I went through this ordeal to realize how many evils God protects us from. Every tiny thread of life, tiny drop of blood, tiny strand of hair, tiny blade of grass is His gift.
Ioana Todor