Monday, July 16, 2007

hands

Thunder, pelting rain and then brilliant sunshine and the temperature has reached 20 Celsius. This afternoon I visited with an older woman who is slowly approaching death. She was sitting up and they had wheeled her into the corridor. She never really knows who I am. It doesn’t really matter. Her small hands, all sinew, bone with large deep purple veins enfolded my hand. She seemed beyond saying anything until I recite the Twenty Third Psalm and she mouths the words along with me. We share time and prayer and soon I leave as she retreats into suspended animation. I have done a lot of things today, but that brief interlude was probably the most important.

1 comment:

Joanne said...

I don't know what else you might have done that day, but I'm willing to bet that your assessment was absolutely right. Those hands and those words and the Presence made the peak of your day.
. . . exactly what I want someone to do when I am that old woman approaching death.