THE HEALER: FORTUNE OR FATE?

Note: This is one of nine stories told at Peterborough Storyteller's World Storytelling Day event on March 20th, 2013. The Healer was written and performed by Don Herald. Check back in a few days to this Tales and Tips blog to view video clips of some of the wonderful stories told that evening.

My story is based on true events that happened almost forty-five years ago.

It had been another hot, busy day in the surgery of the Christian mission hospital in north Central India. Dr. Tom, a British surgeon, had been operating all day long. Since his hospital was the only one for hundreds of miles in any direction, his surgery, outpatient and inpatient units were always filled to overflowing.

It was not uncommon for a person to travel on foot, or be pulled in a buffalo cart or sometimes carried on a stretcher for several days to reach his hospital. As would be the case here in Canada or in Britain, each patient also came with the expectation that Dr. Tom’s skill would fix them, perhaps even save their life or that of a loved one. But unfortunately not everyone could be fixed or saved.

At day’s end, we were relaxing with a cooling drink in his small living room. Dr. Tom was showing us some x-rays of a young child whose parents had carried him to his surgery many months ago. The child could not walk due to a severe congenital degeneration of the hip sockets. The x-rays clearly showed very little bone and cartilage in and around the joints. The boy was a cripple.

There was no surgery that Dr. Tom could do that would repair the bone structure enough to allow the boy to ever walk, even with the aid of a crutch. His parents were devastated that the famous Dr. Tom and his legendary healing powers could not help their son. This time, the famous Healer could not heal.

Putting down the x-rays, Dr. Tom sipped on his drink and for a moment seemed lost in thought. Then he resumed his story.

In the months after the child had been at his hospital, Dr. Tom began to hear stories from patients about a wandering preacher man who had mysteriously appeared in the more remote areas of the region. According to Dr. Tom’s patients, this bearded fellow dressed in flowing robes like a holy man and was always accompanied by a group of ten to twelve men who appeared to be friends of the Preacher and assisted him in his ministry.

But what most intrigued Dr. Tom about the growing reputation of the Preacher was that at his gatherings, villagers reported that the Preacher laid hands on some of the ill and suffering and apparently healed them. For these acts, he and his band demanded no money, but asked only for food and modest lodging to support them in their travels and ministry.

The Preacher’s reputation as a healer grew incredibly fast among the villagers. Soon his gatherings grew from at first dozens, then to hundreds of men, women and children who came to hear the Preacher’s words and hopefully for a fortunate few, to benefit from his healing work.

As a surgeon, Dr. Tom was understandably very skeptical of the growing number of reports from his patients about what were now often referred to as healing ‘miracles’ performed by the Preacher. Dr. Tom began writing down these miracle stories, curious to get to the bottom of what was really going on here. He showed us a notebook where he had meticulously recorded dozens of villagers’ reports about the healing acts of the Preacher.

Dr. Tom began to wonder if this man’s reputation was by clever design or perhaps by divine guidance.

One day, quite unexpectedly, the young boy and his parents returned to Dr. Tom’s outpatient clinic. Only this time, the boy was walking with the help of a cane. Dr. Tom couldn’t believe what he was seeing. He learned that the parents had heard of the Preacher and carried their son a great distance to a gathering. The boy had the good fortune to meet the Preacher who laid hands upon the boy’s hips and legs and prayed. The boy had risen slowly and awkwardly, and then walked unsteadily away supported by his thankful parents. Ever the scientific skeptic and after hearing this story, Dr. Tom again x-rayed the boy’s hips.

It was these x-rays that he now pulled out from a folder and held them up for us to examine. Dr. Tom pointed out how the sockets were now complete with bone and cartilage into which the boy’s leg bones fit snugly and properly.

Dr. Tom looked at us. ‘I have no real explanation for this. It would appear that the Preacher man has done the impossible and healed this child. If I had not seen this with my own eyes and did not have these x-rays as proof, I would never have believed this’.

So now, I leave it for you to decide. Was it Fortune? Or was it Fate? Or was it something else entirely?