When I arrived at the doctor’s office I had a headache and was feeling ‘under the weather’ literally. I was having what I call a weather headache. My neurologist calls it a migraine so I was there for treatment. My doc is great, and worth the wait, but I knew it would be at least an hour.

After I handled the checking in and co-pay, I sat down in the already filling waiting room. My Myers-Briggs personality type indicates a preference for introversion over extraversion.  In most situations I find that to be true. I really, really did not feel like engaging with anyone. I did all those things to keep people at bay. I looked at my phone. I closed my eyes. I knew once I engaged I’d be stuck for an hour. But all these really old women around me were not reading my signals.

“What time do you have? I really like your purse. Have you see this doctor before? How long do you usually wait?  I like the other guy [the P.A.] but they make me see the doctor.”  But, there is another type indicator preference on the Myers-Briggs that shows I prefer feeling over thinking. As a matter of fact, I am off the chart for the feeling preference. Often feelers, because we care about people so much, present ourselves as extraverts.

And so that is how it went today. Me and a group of 80+ year old women got engaged in an hour long conversation in the waiting room of the doctor’s office.  But most of the talking was between me and one particular woman named Rose.

Rose is a Jewish woman who grew up in New York and worked in the garment district for many years. She loved to tell jokes. I’m lousy at telling jokes; I can’t remember them. I couldn’t believe she had so many in her repertoire.  And repertoire it was for her. She was quite the performer. At times she even stood and performed for the entire group. She was a real comedian. The part about her being Jewish is important because many of her jokes were aimed at Jewish people. “We Jewish people like to laugh at ourselves.”

She was dressed to the nines, in blues and whites. She was a little over the top like many 80 something women can get occasionally. She had an aqua shade of blue eye liner above and below her eyes, the same color of huge watch, and matching knee-high hose rolled down above her shoes. I’m not even sure where one could buy that particular color of knee-highs.  But for sure she put a lot of thought and effort into her outfit so one had to appreciate it.

When the nurse came out to call me in, Rose was in the middle of a joke. I stayed to listen to the punch line. She stood up to hug me. We hugged tight. She said to me, “God bless you.”  At that moment, I felt that He had.

I remembered the scripture from Hebrews, “Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” I wondered how many times I might have missed God’s blessings or failed to entertain angels because I had talked myself out of it.  Today was not one of those days.

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