The rain came down in torrents as the November concert day came to a close and the men and families of His Voice prepared to depart for home. However, a request came in from a doctor who had heard the men's chorus earlier in the day. He was inviting His Voice to surprise his sister-in-law Matilda who was in recuperative isolation at Thornton Hospital located on the La Jolla campus of the University of California, San Diego.
Matilda waved to His Voice from the third floor balcony as her nurse, sister, and brother-in-law stood beside her peering down as the men's chorus stood alone in the majestic lobby. Pianist Jerry Albritton sat at the small keyboard, assisted by Ethel Ferguson holding the music. Director Michael Naluai began leading the men's chorus in song.
Before the men saw Matilda waving to them far below in the lobby, it seemed like a lot to ask of a weary group of rained drenched singing men but as the hymns echoed off the towering walls and more patients gathered in the lobby and balconies the medical center seemed transformed into a cathedral of healing.
The men sang the last notes of No More Night and Hallelujah Bye and Bye as a circle of prayer began forming and enlarging with the men of His Voice joining hands with patients and families who had been listening. In that insulated circle of care Thanksgiving began early. They all had experienced the bounty of God's grace and hope, including the lovely lady bowing her head in the balcony above.
It was one of those special times in the life of a singer of God's grace, when he knows he is singing with angels . . . "No more night, no more pain, no more tears, never crying again, praises to the Great I Am, we will live in the light of the risen Lamb...."
