So today is National Donut Day! I want to take a moment to reminisce on the importance of donuts. I say this tongue-in-cheek as it is a somewhat silly holiday, yet, for me, also a very serious one.
You see, this time two years ago, donuts were what was keeping me going. I was driving to/from Chicago and Cincinnati every week to be with my mom in the hospital. She had just overcome breast cancer and the many surgeries that went with that. Now, she was in need of a liver transplant (we think due to the chemo treatments killing her liver). She was on death’s doorstep and we had received word that there was a match.
My dad was running out of time off. He needed to be at work. So I would take day shifts, he would take evenings and weekends, and nights were generally both of us. My mom’s health was extremely precarious due to a number of factors. The surgery itself could’ve been fatal, even if the liver took. The whole summer was ups and downs. I can’t tell you how many times she almost died, and how every time God saved her. We were afraid to leave the hospital. The few times we did, we were called back because of a complication.
It was during this time that a gentleman would go extremely out of his way to bring me Dunkin’ Donuts for breakfast. It was per my request. He wanted to help. He didn’t know me. He only knew I was his friend’s daughter. But he brought those donuts frequently.
He didn’t know it at the time, but those donuts were my lifeblood during these weeks. They weren’t just breakfast. They were also food in the middle of the night because complications happened at night. They were sustenance to get me home to Chicago as I didn’t have enough time to stop to eat. In fact, I ate so many donuts that when others asked to bring food, I had to order completely healthy because my blood was turning to sugar!!! There wasn’t a single day I wasn’t eating donuts (fresh or stale)!
To this day, I can’t eat a donut from Dunkin’ Donuts without thinking of this man and without thinking of the times spent in the hospital. You see, this holiday that I once thought was silly now holds immense meaning. It represents the kindness of a man who didn’t even know me but stepped out to show me Jesus’ love. It represents the struggle. It represents how much my mother overcame. It represents how much God showed himself in safeguarding my mother’s life through many brushes with death. It represents God taking care of my family in Chicago through the help of other Christians, so that I could be with my mom/dad. It represents God allowing me to be blessed by others during a time where I wasn’t even sure how to respond to those blessings.
So in honor of all of that (and more) I am buying Dunkin’ Donuts today. In praise of how amazing the body of Christ is, I will eat those donuts!
FOLLOW ME
