“Everything is Good With my Heart”

         “Todo esta bien con mi corazon.” “Everything is good with my heart.” This is the statement a ninety-six year old hospice patient loved to say to his family and friends whenever they stopped in to visit. As Mr. Montano’s chaplain, I wondered how it was that he could deliver this line with such confidence and ease. What influenced the retired uranium miner to be able to say such a thing?

         I know that it was certainly not that he had an easy life; he was widowed at the age of sixty, outlived a son and a grandson and he was a man who struggled with many physical infirmities; and yet, this was the phrase that summed up his life. “Everything is good with my heart.”

         So, what was it about this guy? What made him so content? As I was thinking of my patient this week, I remembered some things about him, things I wish to share with you.

         Mr. Montano was a man of joy. Before his funeral, I sat with the family and heard many stories of how he used to make everyone laugh, how he loved to tell jokes, how he never took himself or life too seriously. It was easy to see the influence he had on his many grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and even great-great grandchildren as they all stood around the grave after the committal, singing the old song, “Found a Peanut.” I’m not sure that all the adults in the family thought it was such an appropriate grave song to sing; but knowing Mr. Montano as I did and hearing how funny he was all of his life, I can only imagine that he not only inspired the song, he was somewhere listening to them and laughing.

         Perhaps Mr. Montano was also able to say that everything was good with his heart because he had faith. He would say to me every time I went to see him, “I’m waiting.” And I would ask, “Waiting for what?” And he would smile and say, “The next thing.” Mr. Montano loved life but he knew something better was waiting for him beyond this world. He had a satisfied soul because he had faith. He knew he was a child of God. He knew that he was not forsaken.

         Finally, something I know about my patient that possibly contributed to his sunny disposition was that he loved children. His family told me that when he was out and about town he would stop and talk to them; he honestly wanted to know about their lives. He was interested in them; he honored them. Family members shared with me how he went out of his way to get to know children, how he saw them as God’s precious ones.

         Mr. Montano was not rich. He lived in a very modest home and had few treasures. He was not very well-educated, left school before finishing, teaching himself to read as an adult. But it turns out Mr. Montano didn’t need very much because he had the greatest gift of all. He lived life fully and well and he died without regret. “Todo esta bien con mi corazon,” he told us before he died; and surely, there is nothing better than that.

You are the light of the world.

Yours,

Lynne