Modern medicine for all its miracles has created so many situations that I think we as people are just not equipped to deal with because . . . it just ain’t natural.
The other day as I was standing outside waiting on the kids to be dismissed from school one of the teacher’s aides I know passed by me. We said our greetings as normal and she said, “see you next week.” Now this was a Tuesday and so I took the cue and asked if she was going anywhere. She said, “I am having problems.” And then it came out. Her mom had been in the hospital and was supposed to be removed from life support that afternoon. She was sad, angry and confused. She was angry because she felt that her mom had a chance and the doctors were taking that away by saying that the family has no choice, her mother had to be removed from life support. She was also confused by her brother’s acceptance of this. He apparently had already gone and made funural arangements. She told me, “but my mother isn’t even dead, yet. It just seems wrong.” I talked to her for a few minutes. My chaplain intern training came in handy. I had attended dozens of deaths and had a good idea of what was to come. I told her I would keep her and her family in my prayers, and I have.
As I’ve thought of her, I’ve thought about dying. It’s not the same anymore. More and more people are dying the way this woman’s mother did. It was not a surprise, but a decision and one that happens according to a hospital schedule.
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