Maureen and Sean – III

The day after visiting Sean in the hospital I saw John at the post office.

“Hey Bob, you sure put a scare into Sean,” John said.

“What do you mean?”

“He called me as soon as you left his hospital room and thought he was going to die.”

“Going to die?” I asked.

“Yes,” John continued, “Sean’s Catholic, so when you came into the room he thought you were there to give him Last Rites. He figured he was sicker than he was being told and that they’d called for a priest, but that they couldn’t find a priest on short notice so they got you to come to pray with him because he was close to death.”

“No kidding?” I smiled.

“I told him that he was going to live as far as we all knew and that you just wanted to drop in and meet him.”

Sean did indeed live – though he would have a brush with death in the not too distant future. But did he really live? Is he living now? It’s funny how we use that word “life” or “living” or “death” or “dying”. It can be used in different contexts to mean different things. There are those who are alive but yet are dead; and then those who are dead but yet are alive.

A hospital visit is how I met Sean. Now about meeting Maureen…