Sad news

I’ve had some sad news, lately. I had a letter from a friend in a previous parish, whom I haven’t seen for over ten years. When I knew him, his daughter, who was in her thirties, was suffering from leukaemia.

After I left that parish, we continued to keep in touch with Christmas cards, so I always asked after Shelia. I was so pleased to hear that she was in remission, at work, and enjoying life.

But this letter was telling me that Sheila had died, just before Christmas. “Makes you wonder about prayer,” wrote my friend.

I forbore to point out in my reply that Sheila had enjoyed a good quality of life over a few extra years. But I did manage to say something about God giving strength and support to face everything that must be faced in life. It was a difficult letter to write.

I’ve just had a phone call from a friend I haven’t seen for even longer, more like fifteen years. Her husband died very suddenly four years ago, and it was such a traumatic experience that she is still deeply affected by it.

They were on holiday abroad when he suffered a burst aortic aneurysm and died within a couple of hours. but the really sad part is that he’d had similar symptoms three months earlier, visited the doctor, and been told it was just a bad back.

What with the terrible loss of life in the Haiti earthquake as well, it feels like there’s a lot of sadness in the world at the moment.