Chaplain Jeanne

Walked in the room of a man sitting in a chair. He wanted me to sit down and talk. He normally had plenty of visits to pass the time of day from his brother and wife. He shared he has just heard that his 90 plus year old brother fell and broke his neck. How sad! He was here alone in the hospital worried about his brother who was in surgery at the time we spoke about. He had gone outside to get his mail and was putting salt chips down, when he fell. I sat with him for awhile and he wanted to ask me many questions about my life and church and family. I shared with him all that he asked. He expressed his awareness of the church today and that it was getting smaller. I shared why I thought this was so. Some people need someone just to listen to them – they are lonely.

Chaplain Jeanne

Walked into the room of a man who asked me if I remembered him. I did not at first, but he then seemed familiar. He had grown a beard and hair where he was mostly bald with no beard. I used to visit his wife who died 6 months ago. This man was taking is very hard and could not understand why God would do all those to him. He then realized that God knew what he was doing in taking her to a better place, and felt he had to believe this for his own sake. As I remember, she was a lovely lady and he did not seem to be very open to anything religious at that time. He had since changed and I listened to him being an encouragement to him. I read him a scripture and had prayer. Sometimes, God used the loss of a loved one to make us think about eternity. I told him that God wanted to take her home to a better place and he had a plan for him. He would have to trust God in all this.