Maureen and Sean – XI

Sean was sent home from the hospital after a couple of weeks, but he would not be able to return to work for at least three months. In the meantime not only were hospital bills piling up for the Coughlin family, but food in the pantry was dwindling down. Maureen’s retail job didn’t bring in enough money to pay the mortgage, buy groceries, and purchase other necessities. With Sean not being able to work with his men, what his crew could do was limited – though they did the best they could; plus Sean wasn’t able to visit prospective job sites to provide estimates for new work since he was restricted to home – he wouldn’t be able to drive for the three-month period.

On top of everything else Maureen’s cancer had returned and she would be losing time at work due to treatments.

Bags of food began appearing on the Coughlin porch; gift cards to grocery stores and gas stations arrived anonymously in the mail; Kenny Falcon and Jerry Spanner mowed their lawn and took their trash to the dump. Susan, Sharon and other ladies took the kids from time to time to give Sean and Maureen breaks, and drove Maureen to radiation and chemo. But still Sean and Maureen were falling behind on their mortgage payments and other bills.

Maureen and the kids showed up just about every Sunday for church, with Maureen always having a light in her eyes and a smile. I never heard her complain. In July when we had Vacation Bible School Maureen volunteered to help – it was great to see her involved with the kids.

Sean pretty much stayed at home, not being able to drive. I stopped by now and then to see him, but my visits were usually pretty short because Sean had begun to resent Maureen’s church involvement. He had been pretty irritated that she helped at Vacation Bible School and was criticizing her for getting “too religious”. I’m not unaccustomed to hostility – it goes with being a follower of Jesus Christ. I don’t mind it so much when it’s directed at me, but when I see it directed in a family or marriage toward a spouse or child or parent who has come into a relationship with Christ it is hard to watch. C.S. Lewis said that he wrote Till We Have Faces to illustrate the phenomenon of misunderstanding, possessiveness, and incomprehension that can occur in families and friendships when someone comes to know Jesus – it was his least popular book and remains his least understood work.  

The Coughlin bills were piling up; the mortgage payments were falling behind.