by Deb Leib

The Bible says that enjoying your work is a gift given to you by God (Ecclesiastes 5:18-19 NIV).

I retired a little over a year ago which was a hard decision to make, because I loved the job God blessed me with. I worked for the Visiting Nurse Association for more than 32 years. I wish I knew how many houses I’ve been in and how many miles I traveled. I know I went through four Subarus! With being a home health/hospice aide, I met a lot of people with a lot of personalities. With home health patients, you knew they would improve in their health, but it was different with Hospice patients. Yes, some did get better, and I was always happy for them. I knew my calling was taking care of the sick, especially after my mother died with ovarian cancer. I knew how it felt to lose a loved one.

With Hospice, I always tried to make the best of things; there was a time for laughter, a time to listen, or a time for just being there. It was a blessing to take care of patients who knew Jesus but taking care of patients who had nothing to do with Jesus broke my heart. I always prayed to Jesus to help me show His love through my words or by my actions.

Over the years I worked, I couldn’t begin to count how many houses I came out of, where I felt Jesus tapping me on the shoulder saying, “Why didn’t you say something about me?” So I always tried by my words or my actions to let them know about Jesus. There were times they let me pray for them but when their time came at the end, I cried many times, praying they were with Jesus because I loved them so much.

I sit in church and think of the church family I took care of; they were a blessing to me. It was hard because they were my family in Christ. I always tried to keep my spirits up for them, even though the inside of me was crying. I was glad that God brought our paths together to the end.

I sit in church and see and know what some of our church family went through, or are going through now, and my heart goes out to them. There is one man in our church who is an inspiration and blessing to me—Skip Scipioni. No matter what comes his way in health or any other matter, he knows God will take care of him. You are a true blessing to me, Skip.

So God, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for all the blessings I got from the job you blessed me with. I can only hope that in Your Eyes I did a good job.