THREE MIRACLES OF CHRISTMAS 2001
No two ways about it. I’ve experienced my lion’s share of miracles, as has Lilly, yet life has a way of creating awesome new peaks in the miracle department. This past week Lirio and I lived through three distinct events that reconfirmed my suspicion that the Lord has something spectacular programmed for the two of us... down the road somewhere. I’m eager to share these miracles with you:
Miracle # 1- Monsoons came to Puerto Rico December 17 through 22. Fourteen inches of rain fell in 50 hours, much of it into a manhole containing telephone connections leading to our line and to those for about 400 neighbors. Lines crossed. Screeches emanated from the set whenever touched. On Sunday, December 23, our phone emitted a series of death rattles followed by total silence. That’s it for the holidays. It’s all over. Nothing moves in Puerto Rico on Sunday. Monday is Noche Buena, Christmas Eve, when nobody works. I’m convinced the phone will now be dead until after the 26 or 27, earliest. By some incredible miracle, late on the 24th the phone came to life. I connected to my mail server, called the kids. Magnifique. We’re back in business. Quickly we called family and friends with Mery Christmas’... until the eve of the 25th when all phones ceased to work until late on the 28th.
Miracle # 2-We had two parties to hit on Friday evening in separate parts of town. Pouring monsoon rain stopped by 9 pm allowing us to proceed to fiesta #1 and after a couple of hours to el #2. At 2am we headed home with a friend who had to be taken to Old San Juan. Groggy Skip at the wheel heading down a freeway when Lilly yells watch out. I slam on the brakes. The wheels grabbed the soggy pavement like skips’ boats grab the rocks. We stopped four feet from a large flat bed truck with no lights stopped in the middle of the highway blocked by a bunch of cars stalled in deep water. The bed was at the perfect height to clear the hood of the car and then!!!! A true miracle.
Miracle # 3-AT 3pm on the 25th we were invited to a party at the new beach home of a good friend way outside of San Juan. I followed directions given Lirio. We passed the Hyatt Doral, the Cerromar Hotel, then turned right at an ESSO station. There were no further instructions except that the house was just after the station. We looked left and right but everything was under construction. We went on about 2 miles and came to a fork in the road. We chose left. Still nothing around. Another mile and another fork. We opted right which led to a small beachside village. It was obvious we were totally lost. I pulled into a driveway to turn around but couldn’t make it. We continued down another 2 blocks. The ocean and beach was to our right. No question, we are lost!!! Just as I stopped to turn around some guy walks up and asks, “Are you looking for Tita’s party?” And we were there..
William A. Butler