Maureen and Sean – V

Maureen became a semi-regular at church after that first Sunday. By semi-regular I mean a couple Sundays a month. During the first summer her son, Frankie, attended our Vacation Bible School (VBS) and Maureen helped out on the last night of VBS when we had a cookout for kids and parents. Her daughter, Chalice, learned to walk, speak her first words, and discovered the joy of cookies.

I’d see Sean occasionally at the post office; or at the Old Village Café early in the morning or at lunchtime. We’d talk about whatever construction or road building job he was working on; since he was a hunter, during deer season I’d ask him about hunting – Sean was especially fond of the bow as well as black powder.   

It turns out that Maureen had been raised by a mom who belonged to a Presbyterian church and a dad who was Roman Catholic, so she was accustomed to going to worship services of both traditions. Since our congregation was comprised of individuals and families that represented a number of traditions, with a good many from no religious tradition, we easily assimilated folks into our church family. We were a casual group as churches go, casual in the sense of being relaxed with each other. We were not casual about what we believed, for our focus was on Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior and as the only hope for a dying world. But as Susan said one Sunday morning, “When I’m here I feel like I’m with my family – right in our living room, with people I love and with whom I can share my life.” Since the early Christians typically met in homes I was gratified to hear Susan’s comment – after all, Jesus said that others will know we are His followers by the love we have for one another.

Early in our second year at Rock Castle, I was in the Old Village Café having a cup of coffee and waiting for my pastor friend George to meet me for breakfast when Susan and Sharon stopped by my table on their way out after finishing their breakfast.

“Well ladies, what’s your day look like?”

“We’re headed over to Maureen’s”, Sharon said, “I’m going to watch Chalice and Susan is taking Maureen to Charlottesville.”

“What’s going on in Charlottesville?” I asked.

“Maureen hasn’t been feeling good and she’s going for some tests”, Susan answered. “You know, she had cancer about three years ago and they thought they’d got it, she’s been doing fine for all this time.”

No, I didn’t know Maureen had had cancer.

Maureen and Sean – IV

Months passed without seeing Sean again or meeting his wife, Maureen. Then, one Sunday, a young mother came to church with two children, one a baby girl about a year old and the other a boy who looked to be about five years old. She sat with a couple of younger women (Susan and Sharon) in the back, and I could tell from the hugs and greetings that they knew each other. Making my way over to them during my “meet and greet” time before the worship service, I was introduced by Susan:

“Pastor Bob, this is Maureen Coughlin.”

“Well hi Maureen, glad to meet you and great to have you here with us, I’ve been looking forward to meeting you. How’s Sean doing?”

“Oh he’s doing ok, been back to work for a while.”

“I heard from John that I gave him quite a scare when I visited him in the hospital.”

“That was funny, we had a good laugh about that. Though he really was pretty sick.”

Maureen was quite the contrast to Sean; he was big, really big, she was little; he had a voice you could hear across a football field, she was soft spoken, almost to a whisper. In all the time I knew Sean I hardly ever saw him smile – Maureen smiled often. When Sean was in a room you knew it; Maureen, on the other hand – well I guess it was the difference between billowing smoke from a barbeque coming at you compared to the fragrance of a rose that takes you by surprise when you walk past it.

After the worship service, as I stood at the back of the sanctuary greeting people, I told Maureen to tell Sean that I said “Hi” and that I hoped we’d see her again.

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…