Foolish me, but I took a red eye flight to Ft. Lauderdale for a weekend jaunt to Florida and a farewell visit to Dodgertown in Vero Beach. The Dodgers baseball team is moving its spring training site in 2009 to Glendale, Arizona, after 60 years in Vero.
Groggy after the flight and fresh from driving through thunder, lightning and sheets of incessant rain to get to my hotel in Miami Beach, I knew I needed breakfast and coffee to wake me up.
As I sat there over breakfast, I opened up the Miami Herald and found a story that brought tears to my eyes and a realization of my own selfish shallowness to my aching soul.
An obituary on page one for one Mrs. Kaye Obara paid tribute to her for spending the last 38 years of her life at her comatose daughter’s bedside, feeding her, cleaning her and moving her every two hours so she wouldn’t develop bed sores.
It all began when her daughter Edwarda developed such severe diabetes those 38 years ago that her parents had to rush her to the hospital.
Frightened, the then-teenage Edwarda said, "Promise you won’t leave me, will you, Mommy?" Those were the last words out of her mouth before she slipped into a coma.
Mrs. Obara kept her promise until death took her this week at age 80.
My tears begin to well up again even as I write this. Such love, devotion and faith I’ve never approached in my own shallow, selfish existence.
I am truly touched by this woman’s ceaseless love. Thankfully, relatives have vowed to continue caring for Edwarda.
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