Nr.75 ended with: “During one month we had more than 40 people staying with us for several days and nights. Then Marina had a breakdown…………!” (See richardandmarina.net).

With that many visitors and others coming and going, plus also Sunday morning and evening services and a weekly Bible study and prayer meeting, all in our house, it was no surprise that Marina went down. However, the straw that broke the camels back took place on an evening when I “happened” to be home. Marina was upstairs taking a bath and I was in the living room reading a book. Marina likes a hot bath and so whenever the water cools down, she lets some out and fresh hot water in. I could hear this downstairs, but all at once I noticed that the water just kept running. I waited a bit yet, went upstairs and knocked on the bathroom door but got no reply. So I opened the door and found Marina on the floor unconscious. I picked her up and carried her to the bedroom, finding out how heavy an unconscious person is.

I put her on the bed and called the doctor, who came right away. In Belgium doctors make house calls. He slapped Marina on the face and I said, “Doctor, not so hard” but I guess he knew what he was doing. Slowly she came to; was I ever relieved! After checking the bathroom and talking together, we discovered what had happened. We had the kind of hot water heater that heats the water with a gas flame. The burned gas goes outside through an exhaust pipe. But that night there was a storm and the wind was right on our house, blowing the burned gas back into the bathroom. Marina not feeling well got up to get out of the bath, fainted and fell on the floor. The doctor, who knew us quite well told Marina not to entertain anymore visitors, prescribed her some medications and told me to take Marina to the park every day and walk with her to regain her strength. And so we did, it was a new experience for us, as on the prairies in Saskatchewan people don’t go walking. 🙂 Now just think, what would have happened had I not been home that evening?! Someone had kept me at home………….! (See Musings)