About 9:30 p.m. I received a call that one of my parishioners had died. She had been in a nursing home in Dallas for most of my time here. The family had just moved her back home. She had Alzheimer's. I'm feeling pretty guilty because I didn't know that they had moved her back. Needless to say, I haven't visited her. I seem to remember someone mentioning it but it was during Graduation and I just missed it. I hate making mistakes like this. It makes me feel like a bad pastor, a bad person, and a bad Christian.
I ran up to the nursing home and visited with the family. They were very sweet and apparently had been praying for this for a long time. I wish I had been there though.
It makes me wonder why I take an entire day off to lay around and read when I've left something this important undone. The funeral is Sunday @ 3 p.m. I've never conducted a funeral for someone I didn't know. I made arrangements to go and visit with the family tomorrow and hear their stories. I remember the pastor at Wichita Falls telling me to do this and it has worked well for me. He is the pastor of church that the Protho/Perkins family attends. If you are acquainted with SMU-Perkins School of Theology, then you know this family.
Thank God I didn't have anything scheduled for tomorrow. I was planning on visiting with my young couple that is getting married soon. They are having a garage sale in anticipation of combining their households. But it can wait.
1 comment:
Oh...I do so sympathise on this one...having just this afternoon taken the funeral of a lovely lady in our congregation, who had coped with cancer with huge courage...and who had managed to have the "last things" conversation with me that so rarely happens...and had asked me to be with her at the end. Only nobody called me to say when the end was nigh...so I failed to give her the Last Rites she had specifically requested...and no, I couldn't have known...and yes, the family and the nursing staff all knew her wishes but didn't get round to calling me...but, even though neither of us could have known, it still feels dreadful.
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