Well, it took me a few days, but I got over my frustration
of writing an email twice and having it disappear before I could send it. Adam told me that I must have timed out
before I could get it sent! Thanks Adam,
at least I know I’m not totally crazy! Now I've given up on email!
I was trying to tell you about the last few weeks over
here. I’m sure you’ve all heard about
our missionary who died, Elder Palmer.
He had been having headaches, but
then they got really bad and when he started having double vision he called
Sister Rossiter, our new nurse who just got here the very end of April and this
was the end of May. Elder Palmer was
training a new missionary down in Amboistra, about 2 hours south of Antsirabe,
which is about 3 ½ hours south of Antananarivo.
That Saturday Sister Rossiter and President Adams decided that they
needed to get him to a doctor as soon as possible, so President sent Elder and
Sister Todd from Antsirabe to Amboistra to pick up Elder Palmer and his
companion and get them to the doctor in Antsirabe. They did what they could for him there at
their little hospital, at least they could give him some pain medication and
check out some possibilities for his headaches.
They kept eliminating causes for his headaches and double vision. On Monday they brought him to Tana. When they got here he was laying down in the
seat of the truck with two different IVs going.
As soon as they got here, they took him immediately into the doctor that
we use here and within a couple of hours he was having a CT scan. (They really do have ‘some’ medical equipment
here). As soon as they saw that he had a
bleed in his head they knew they were going to have to get him to South Africa.
They had hoped to fly him to Johannesburg Monday night, but
before the air ambulance could get here the fog rolled in and they couldn’t get
here until Tuesday morning. The idea of
a night in the hospital in Madagascar is a little scary. The Rossiters had to talk like crazy to get
to stay in the room with him. It’s a
good thing they were there as no one checked on him very often; when Sister
Rossiter thought he needed something they had to go track down a nurse. They don’t have a ‘nurses station’ like in US
hospitals, they just had to roam the hospital until they found someone to help
them. The APs went back to their
apartment and brought four mattresses to the hospital for them and the
Rossiters to sleep on. The Rossiters
were in the room with him and the APs were just outside the door in the
hall. Sister Rossiter sat and held his
hand all night, as he wasn’t doing much sleeping; she talked to him all night
just trying to keep his mind off his headache.
He wasn’t able to open his eyes because of the double vision and the
brightness of any light. At one point he
said to her, “You have been so good to me, and I don’t even know what you look
like.” (He had been down in Amboistra
since they had arrived and they had never met).
She said, “Honey, you’re not missing anything!” You will all love the Rossiters!
Tuesday morning they got him in an ambulance and took him
out to the airport to meet the air ambulance from Johannesburg. President Adams was a little worried about
‘red tape’, so he had called the US Embassy to see if they could help with getting
the plane in and Elder Palmer loaded and headed to South Africa as quickly as
possible. When they got to the airport
there were 4 or 5 people from the Embassy there. We’ve heard that they were amazing! Without them helping it would have taken
several hours to get that plane turned around.
They really made things move quickly and efficiently; quick and
efficient are not Malagasy words!!! Even
President Adams driver, Marcellin, said, “It kind of makes you wish to be an
American; they take such good care of
their people!”
When they got to the hospital in Johannesburg everyone was
really encouraged because the bleed in his brain had quit bleeding and they
were quite optimistic. Things just went
up and down for him, some days a little better and other days not so good. Our whole mission had a special fast for him,
and I can’t even imagine how many prayers were said for him all day every
day. Sometimes the answers to our
prayers are not what we want them to be!
He was there for two or three weeks when his parents were finally able
to get passports and get to South Africa.
He was able to squeeze their hands and he knew they were there, and they
knew that he knew it.
He was an amazing missionary. When they decided he needed to come north
from Amboistra for some medical help, he was more concerned about the
missionary that he was training and what was going to happen with him. He had had ‘quite a mission’ as he said. In the MTC he got his nose broken playing
basketball and had to have surgery. When
he got here he stepped in a hole (there are holes and hazards everywhere, no
such thing as a smooth surface to walk on), twisted his ankle pretty bad and
had to hobble on crutches for several weeks.
One P-day he and a few other Elders were at a lemur park and a ‘crazy’
lemur bit three of them; they had to have rabies shots because they couldn’t
find the lemur that bit them. Even with
all the difficulties that he’d had he had a great attitude and wanted to be the
best missionary he could possibly be.
He was an organ donor.
Somewhere I read that even after he died, he helped up to 80 people in
Africa. He played the piano, he’d had a
few lessons but he mostly played by ear.
He made some CDs before his mission that are pretty amazing. He could even play upside down, laying on the
floor.
The day before the Memorial Service the Todd’s left to go
home. I was already a bit of an
emotional wreck after reading all of the missionaries letters to the Palmers
(some of them needed a little spell check!) and getting everything ready for
the Memorial Service. Besides the Todd’s
were going home to MY neighborhood!!! I
was a real ‘mess’ when they left.
We had a Memorial Service for Elder Palmer here. Most of the missionaries here in Madagascar
wrote letters to his family and sent pictures that they had with him. He came out in the same group as Elder Babb
(Colton). During the Service we had a
slide show with these pictures and his piano music in the background – it was
way good! His trainee, Elder Herrin,
talked; his trainer, Elder Fisher, talked; a group of missionaries sang a song;
then Sister Rossiter and President Adams both talked. There were quite a few Malagasies there,
several that he had taught. It was an
amazing service, really helped everyone get through it.
That afternoon the new Humanitarian couple arrived – so life
moved on! We also had to get going as we
had 8 missionaries going home the next week, a group of new missionaries coming
in, and all of the transfers that go with transfer week. Transfer week is always really CRAZY and fun
and a little sad. Sad to see the old
missionaries go home – it’s kind of like sending your own kids off on their
missions again; we get really attached to some of them, especially the ones who
have been APs and Office Elders. But you
are also excited for them to go home and see their families and get on with
their life. It’s fun to see the new
missionaries come in, especially the ‘shell-shocked’ look on their faces when
they arrive at the office. The ride in from the airport is always really
‘interesting’! The Crazy part is all of
the missionaries coming through going to other parts of the mission and to be
trainers. It’s kind of like a big party
at the office for two or three days!
