T WAS MEMORIAL DAY, and I was going to CHRISTUS St. Joseph Hospital to do volunteer work. The city of Houston was shut down because it was a holiday.

As I stood on the street corner near work, waiting for the light to change, I noticed how strangely quiet everything was around me. There was hardly an automobile in sight, and I seemed to be the only one in the whole area.

When I crossed the street, I noticed a Hispanic lady standing alone on the opposite corner. I thought she was waiting for someone, or that she was waiting for a bus. However, she approached me and said just two words: daughter and “emergencia.”

I asked if she was looking for the hospital emergency room. She repeated the same two words again. I realized she did not speak English, so I beckoned her to follow me.

We entered the main door of the hospital next to the gift shop. I saw a security officer at the information desk, and told the guard that I needed someone who spoke Spanish immediately. The guard picked up the telephone and said she would call the security office. About that time, the woman who was cleaning the glass door of the hospital entrance turned and spoke to the visitor in Spanish. The two women spoke together in Spanish, and then headed upstairs. I followed them to make sure they crossed the sky walk into the Pavilion Building—where the emergency room is located—knowing that everything would be fine, and the lady would find her daughter.

This was my “Miracle Moment,” because I felt that God had sent me to CHRISTUS St. Joseph Hospital that day. He saw that I had to wait for a light to change, so I could escort a stranger who was alone on a street corner and in need of help.

I thought to myself as I did my volunteer work later that day, how would I feel if I was in her shoes? What would it be like to be in a big city in which you were unable to speak the language, and to be standing alone on a street corner trying to find your child in a hospital? That’s when I knew in my heart that God sent me to CHRISTUS St. Joseph that day to help that lovely lady.

When I began my work at CHRISTUS St. Joseph Hospital, the volunteer office gave me a tote bag as a welcome gift. Printed on the bag was the phrase, “Our volunteers help put life in living.” I hope that I was able to put life in living for that dear, sweet woman waiting for me at the corner of the hospital campus that day.

I am reminded of the movie “Miracle on 34th Street”—a film that many people watch at Christmas time. Well, this was “Miracle on St. Joseph Parkway,”—on Memorial Day.

John Riddell
volunteer
CHRISTUS St. Joseph Hospital
Houston, Texas