Leading on from my last blog one patient that I did get to know and journey with for quite a long time was a man who had fallen down some stairs and broken his neck. This man was in his early 70’s. He was still working as a verger and his religious beliefs were really important to him. He had a traditional Anglo-catholic faith.
He liked me to read to him from the King James version of the Bible. He would smile as I struggled to get my tongue around the old English prose. I took to saying my daily office with him wherever possible. We were an unlikely pairing but I think we both got something from our months together.
I can’t imagine what it must be like to be in his words “A dapper gentleman” and be very particular about what you wear and how you present yourself and then end up quadriplegic and unable to wipe your own nose. I think before his accident he would probably have looked down on those beneath him. He was a bit of a snob. The experience of being totally helpless made him see things differently.
I could tell the changes going on in him internally by the prayer requests he would give me. At first he always wanted me to pray for the Queen, the Church and the Bishops etc by the time he was preparing to leave to go to a spinal rehab centre he was asking me to pray for those affected by cancer, poverty and even the plight of Palestinian children. These were subjects we’d often debate as I would talk to him about current affairs.
I wonder where he is now and how he is coping?
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