A Treasury of Christmas Miracles by Karen Kingsbury Page B

as Dr. Sanchez located Barbara’s file.
    “Okay, here it is. Let me see. Yes, it’s right here. On October fifteenth I received a call on my cell phone from a Dr. Hank
     Oliver. The man said he was Barbara’s father and that when she got toward the end of her illness she’d be going home to live
     with him.”
    Lou shook his head, trying to make sense of the situation. “That’s fine, Dr. Sanchez, but my father’s been dead for almost
     thirty years. Obviously he couldn’t make a phone call.”
    “Is it possible it was an uncle or some other relative or friend?” she asked. “As I said, the man was very knowledgeable about
     Barbara and her condition. Is there another doctor in your family? I never mentioned the call to Barbara because I assumed
     your father had discussed it with her before calling me.”
    There was silence between them again. “Doctor, you’re sure the man said he was Barbara’s father?”
    “Definitely. I remember the call very clearly. I’m sure it must have been an uncle or something. Either way, why don’t you
     look into it and let me know. It sounds like somewhere there’s a family member who is expecting her to come home to live with
     them. Meanwhile I’ll work on Barbara and try to convince her that it isn’t wise for her to be alone anymore.”
    “I’d like her home with us before Christmas, Doctor.”
    “Don’t worry; I’ll call her this afternoon.”
    Lou hung up the phone and sat staring at it, wondering who would have made such a strange call. There were several uncles
     in the Oliver family, but none of them knew Barbara very well, and certainly none of them would have identified themselves
     as Barbara’s father. Nevertheless, he spent much of the day contacting every male relative who knew Barbara and asking if
     anyone had called Barbara’s doctor. By that evening he had learned that none of them knew anything about it.
    Suddenly he remembered his prayer. He had asked God to work out Barbara’s living arrangements, and now he had discovered that
     Dr. Sanchez had received a phone call from someone claiming to be Hank Oliver. Was it possible that God had answered his prayers
     by letting him know that Barbara was eventually going to be going home to heaven, where she would be reunited with their father?
    Lou told Anna what had happened, and she, too, thought it might be possible. Perhaps, she said, the phone call was God’s way
     of letting them know Barbara was headed for a better place.
    “But that doesn’t help us right now,” she added. “We still don’t know where she needs to be for the next three months until
     she dies. Christmas is in two days. She needs a place to live, Lou.”
    “I know. That’s the strange part. If it’s an answer to prayer, then what do we do about the next three months?”
    The answer came too quickly.
    Early on Christmas Eve—the day after Barbara agreed to go home with Lou and Anna—she died peacefully in her sleep. She had
     been completely bedridden for just two days.
    Dr. Sanchez and the others were baffled when they heard the news. Although she had been very clearly dying, they thought Barbara
     should have had at least another three months to live.
    At the Oliver home, Barbara’s death sent Lou and Anna on a roller-coaster ride of mixed emotions.
    “I’m going to miss her so much,” Lou said, his eyes brimming with tears. “But she was no longer able to live alone, and God
     knew it was time for her to come home. Home for Christmas . . .”
    “It makes you wonder, doesn’t it?” Anna asked.
    Lou raised an eye. “About the phone call, you mean? Yeah, it does. The more I think about it, the more I believe it just might
     have been Dad making that phone call.”
    “Maybe so.”
    “Really,” Lou continued. “I believe God wanted us to know everything was going to work out fine. Barbara wouldn’t need a place
     to live because she was going home to heaven.”
    Anna was silent, lost in her own