Maureen and Sean – VI

The medical news for Maureen wasn’t good, the cancer was back.

One of many things they don’t teach you in seminary is that vocational ministers live on a continuum of life and death, sickness and health, joy and despair. In any given week babies are born and folks die, not just old folks, but young folks, sometimes very young folks. And the folks that die don’t always know ahead of time that they have an appointment with death – death can be sudden – we just never know.

I was talking to my physician about this continuum once and he said, “They didn’t teach us about this in medical school either”. Now I guess you’d think that doctors and ministers would simply know about the continuum and know that they’re going to experience it – but I haven’t met anyone who had that foresight and who was prepared for the bottom-line reality of life and death on an on-going basis.

Over the next two years or so Susan, Sharon, and others would gather around Maureen and her family, providing childcare and trips to Charlottesville for radiation and chemo. Maureen became a regular in our fellowship, usually sitting with Sharon and Susan – they were like three sisters, they were certainly three dear friends.

In the meantime Sean was back operating his heavy equipment, keeping his business running, putting food on the table.

I was at home in the afternoon, having lunch, when the phone rang. It was John, my parishioner who worked for Sean, “Bob, Sean’s been in an accident. He was grading a hill out on the River’s Bend jobsite and the front loader tipped over – part of him got pinned beneath the equipment and he’s pretty tore up – they’re transporting him to Middletown Hospital.”