The Hiding Place

I’m reading “The Hiding Place”, by Corrie Ten Boom to Gage, and yesterday as I read, I found myself fighting back a floodgate of tears. We were reading about Corrie’s mom during her time of illness and as her mom’s character came through in the words we were reading, I was reminded of how amazing my own Mom is. I have no doubt that if my Mom were in the same situation as Corrie’s, she would be doing the same thing. Here are Corrie Ten Boom’s words:

(Her Mom suffered a stroke, and as a result could only speak 3 words: “Yes”, “No”, and “Corrie”.)

“To communicate, she and I invented a little game, something like twenty questions. ‘Corrie,’ she would say. ‘What is it, Mama? You’re thinking of someone!’ ‘Yes.’

‘Someone in the family?’

‘No.’

‘Somebody you saw on the street?’

‘Yes.’

‘Was it an old friend?’

‘Yes.’

‘A man?’

‘No.’

‘Mama, I’ll bet it’s someone’s birthday!’ And I would call out names until I heard her delighted, ‘Yes!’ Then I would write a little note saying that Mama had seen the person and wished her a happy birthday. At the close I always put the pen in her stiffened fingers so she could sign it. An angular scrawl was all that was left of her beautiful curling signature, but it was soon recognized and loved all over Haarlem. It was astonishing, really, the quality of life she was able to lead in that crippled body, and watching her during the three years of her paralysis, I made another discovery about love.

Mama’s love had always been the kind that acted itself out with soup pot and sewing basket. But now that these things were taken away, the love seemed as whole as before. She sat in her chair at the window and loved us. She loved the people she saw in the street-and beyond: her love took in the city, the land of Holland, the world. And so I learned that love is larger than the walls which shut it in.”