Real reason

          It's almost eight in the evening and the phone rings.  It's the county hospital.  Today was actually my assigned volunteer day.  The desk informs me that someone has requested a chaplain.  I try to trouble shoot to see if this was an emergency and I need to come in that evening.  It's possible this was just a routine request and someone new to the protocol just saw me listed and direct dialed this evening.  The receptionist is unaware of the situation, so she transfers me back to ER.  After a brief dialogue with an ER staffer, I'm no better off.  I make the call to go in anyway just in case this is an EOL (end of life) scenario.  By the time I check in and make my way to the ER, the gentleman who made the request (we'll call him John) is about to be moved to a room.  I enter, introduce myself, meet John, and attempt to diagnose his spiritual need that evening.  It turns out, John is more interested in the tv and food he will get that night than he is to talk with a chaplain.  He basically admits to just checking it off the addmittal form, along with a lot of other stuff.  John wasn't really looking for a chaplain that night.  He was just looking for anything.  Evidently, he wasn't used to the basic comforts we have each day like a room, a tv, a hot meal, and blankets.  I get John an extra blanket and we pray before I take my leave. 

          Since I'm already there, I move up to the second floor to see if anyone else needs a chaplain that evening.  A nurse refers me to 214 where I encounter a family that was actually entering the building the same time I did moments earlier.  There's a remarkably well-aged lady with long white hair resting in the bed, attached to oxygen, and largely unresponsive.   Her daughter, son-in-law, and only grandson are the only folks in the room.  Over the course of about 35 minutes, I discover the real reason I was called up there that night.  Sarah has lived a rich, full life for over 90 years but she's not expected to make it through the week.  Her grandson just got in after a 7.5 hour drive from WV.  He's likely in his late 30's but is getting married for the first time next week.  It's a unique meeting of beginnings and endings in the room that night.  For the next half hour, I'm privleged to share in it.  I leave grateful for what we encountered in that room that night in each other and in our prayers.  Shortly after Sarah comes off the machine the next morning, she dies.  Her grandson will head back to WV to wed his fiance.  John will have another night to enjoy in a room until they regulate his seizures and blood sugar.  And I'll remember that sometimes the real reason you are needed for something isn't always what you expect.