A Chaplain in Kent

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Written November 2023

 
Hospice doctors get a view of all kinds of people, and all kinds of chaplains in the course of a day - some good, some not so good, and some almost perfect. They can pick up opinions from distressed patients. There was the rabbi who insisted on doing an anatomical inspection on a man who'd not been a practising Jew but claimed the funeral rites of his heritage. And the pastor who pestered a patient to confess her sin in order to be healed. 
 
But there are also opinions coming from a heart of gratitude. Like the patient who overheard a catholic priest visiting one of his parishioners in the next bed and beckoned him to see him. As a result he experienced a peaceful end. He had returned to his childhood faith.
 
But there was also the part-time chaplain who came in to spend time with patients in the day hospice, just chatting or sharing a table game and then conducting the weekly communion service in the room set aside as a chapel. She'd go from bed to bed, not sermonising, usually just greeting, but sometimes lingering. She seemed to know. And there was always time for coffee in the staff room.
'I believe in constructive loitering,' she once told me.
The staff loved her. She helped them by listening, often not saying much. 
 
And the doctors seemed to know when to call for her. They wondered whether she might help the couple facing a difficult decision about withdrawing a ventilator to support difficult breathing in motor neurone disease. The patient wanted it off, knowing he would die. The wife wanted it kept on.  The doctors were uncertain. The chaplain dropped in for a routine visit.  Nobody knows how the conversation progressed or how she managed to get them to be of one mind. But she left them in contented agreement. The ventilator remained, though the patient died a week later - at peace. 
 
Here was my ideal chaplain: modest and unassuming, gentle and approachable, truthful and confidential. There was a presence about her; her demeanour conveyed it. She had a heart of compassion.  One wonders where it came from. I'm inclined to say that if I need a chaplain near the end of my time, I'd love it if she were around.
 
Thank you, Lord, for the gifts of the Spirit that you give to those who ask.
 
October 2023