Weather and Death

Tonight is full of weather. It's 9:19 p.m. and I just took Brigit out into a back yard
of snow, ice and rain. She did better than me, having four legs. It's suppose to really snow tomorrow on top of all the icy stuff. Monday computes will be iffy.

And all this week I'll be dealing with Death--roads allowing me,

Tuesday I have a funeral at a funeral home in Middletown for a man who was a life-long policeman--:local, the county, then State Police. A dear guy who lived across the road from St. James in Higganum with his wife and daughter. He needed open heart surgery but couldn't have it because he got an infection from the hospital. So he died in a care home days later. I used to go across the street and talk with him and his wife and give them communion. He was an honorable and gentle man who spent his life in dangerous situations. The ashes of his dogs are waiting for his and then his wife's, when she dies. And they will be together for eternity. Several days before he died, his daughter had a baby, so his wife went from a hospital of new life to a care home of impending death.

What a mixture of feelings.

Then Friday night there is a service of Remembrance at St. James where people remember those who they loved who are dead. It's a lovely service, but full of pain. This time of year--Thanksgiving and Christmas are difficult for a lot of people. This service is to support them in their pain in such a seemingly joyous time.

Then Saturday, I have a funeral at Emmanuel Church in Killingworth for a man who died suddenly on the day after Thanksgiving. His family is out of state and I haven't talked with them yet, but I did talk with him the Sunday before he died at church. He wasn't always there but was a lot. He seemed fine to me that day.

Sudden death has an advantage for the one who dies, but not for those who love them. There was no opportunity for 'final sharing' for his daughters and grand-children.

This is the first day of Advent--a time of anticipation and waiting and longing.

And I have weather and death to contend with.

It's what I chose to do so many years ago--be with those touched by life and death.

I just wish it wasn't so cold and icy right now.