Tim’s seizure came out of nowhere. He was a relatively healthy man. At 58 years of age he had successfully avoided any chronic condition. But that ended the day the Cat scan results came back. He was given 18-24 months. It was inoperable. Any treatment would merely be experimental. Marie was devastated. They had so much life to live together. Their two daughters were both married and out of the house and early retirement was just a few short years away. They had big adventures in store. But in the blink of an eye those dreams were shattered.
“How could this be?” questioned Marie. They attended church every Sunday. She was in the choir. Tim was a greeter and a member of the Knights of Columbus. They were good people? Why them? Why now?
For the next few months they grappled with their faith. Marie would continue to bring up how unfair life was. Tim, on the other hand did not want to talk about it. Every time Marie brought it up, he would skip away to his quiet spot on the lake to enjoy some fishing and some personal reflection.
One day, Tim seemed to be gone longer than usual. Marie kept glancing up at the clock. Perhaps the fish were biting today and Tim was enjoying his luck. But it was unlike him not to call if he was going to be late for dinner. Then, the phone rang. It was St. Anne’s Hospital. Tim was in the ER. Marie’s heart sank. She ran to her car and sped to the hospital as fast as she could, bursting her way into the Emergency Room.
“Where is he?” she screamed. “Where is my husband Tim?”
The nurse brought her into the back room. “Your husband appears to have had a seizure on the lake. He nearly drowned. Another fisherman revived him. Unfortunately he has fallen into a coma. We need to run some tests.”
“May I see him?” pleaded Marie.
“Of course Mrs. Jacobs, we’ll bring you right in.”
Tim was hooked up to monitors. She grabbed his hand and caressed the top of it with her fingers. Their time together was already running short, and now this?
The next few weeks were the most trying weeks of her life. Her daughters took turns staying with her, and attending daily mass to pray for their father. Weekday masses were fairly empty. There were about a dozen or so retirees that attended each day and stayed for the rosary, but then there was a younger man, in his late 20s, who attended with his two young daughters. They were fairly new to the parish. She didn’t know much about them. All she knew was that every Sunday Father Jim would mention the man’s wife Lisa during the Prayer of the Faithful. “Life really is cruel,” she thought to herself. She made sure to include them in her prayers
.When Monday arrived Marie made her way to the hospital first thing in the morning as usual, only this time Dr. Garcia was waiting to see her. The news was not what she wanted to hear. Tim’s brain was showing very little activity. The odds that he would awake from his coma were astronomically slim. He recommended bringing the family in to say their goodbyes and taking him off the ventilator. But Marie refused. “I’m not giving up on him,” she shouted. “God will provide.”
The week dragged on and led into the next, and Marie had several more difficult conversations with Dr Garcia, along with a whole range of specialists, and they all ended the same. “God will provide,” she insisted.
One evening, Marie decided to slip into the hospital chapel to pray. “Please Lord,” she pleaded. “Please help my husband. He doesn’t deserve this suffering. He is a good man. Please have mercy. I don’t know what to do. Please help me.”
As she was praying, a young priest slipped in and approached her pew. “I’m sorry to disturb you Ma'am. I’m Father Francis. May I ask what is troubling you?”
“I’m Marie,” she replied. “And it's my husband Tim. A few months ago he was diagnosed with brain cancer. We thought we had at least another year together. But then he had a seizure and almost drowned. He’s been in a coma ever since. The doctors keep telling me to take him off the ventilator. But I can’t do it. They have no faith. God will provide. He is a good person. God will show mercy, won’t he?”
“That is sad. You know Marie, my grandfather had a brain tumor. It was the saddest thing. Watching his suffering. It started with seizures. Then came the massive headaches. The nausea, the fatigue, the vomiting. It was horrible.”
Marie’s eyes welled up with tears. “Why are you telling me this?” she cried. “How could God do this to him? Where is God’s mercy?”
“The Lord works in mysterious ways,” Father Francis replied. “You ask for God’s mercy. But just knowing the suffering your husband will have to endure with his diagnosis, perhaps this is God’s way of showing his mercy. You say your husband is a good man. Do you believe he will go to heaven?”
“Of course,” she replied. “He’s a very holy man. There’s nothing that’s going to stop him from getting into heaven.”
“Nothing except for those machines,” Father Francis replied. “God will provide. Trust in him, and you will have the answers you are looking for.”
For the first time in weeks Marie’s eyes were opened. She was not prolonging Tim’s life. She was simply preventing his entry to heaven.
That night she called the girls. The whole family came by the next day and bid farewell. She held him close, and as his body slipped quietly away, she felt the final beating of his heart. He was at peace.
The next week at Mass, Father Jim addressed the crowd. “For the last several weeks, we have been praying steadily for two of our beloved parishioners,” he proclaimed. “This week, we sadly had to say goodbye to our brother Tim, but thank the Lord for blessing us with his life. Today he is with God. But I am also pleased to announce that our sister Lisa’s prayers have been answered. After a successful surgery she is expected to make a full recovery. The Lord has answered our prayers.”
Marie smiled “God is merciful,” she whispered.
Marie continued to attend morning mass, and then one day, she spotted that young family once more, and this time Lisa was with them. After mass had ended she made her way over to congratulate her on her recovery. Lisa thanked her and the two women hugged. As they did Marie felt a sense of peace and warmth surrounding her. There was something all too familiar. Lisa offered her condolences. “I am so sorry about your husband,” she said.
“Thank you,” replied Marie. “He would have suffered. “I like to believe it was God’s way of showing mercy. You never know, The Lord does work in mysterious ways.”
“I know,” replied Lisa. “They gave me just days to live. My heart had given out. A young priest even came by and performed the anointing of the sick. And then, a miracle happened. The next day a heart became available. In this very same hospital. If that heart didn’t arrive when it did, the doctors said that I would not be here today, and my precious girls would grow up without a mother.”
Marie’s eyes welled with tears as she wrapped her arms around Lisa once more. She felt her heartbeat, Tim’s heartbeat, against her chest as she looked into the eyes of her two young daughters. They reminded her of her own. At last she had the answers she was looking for.
“The Lord works in mysterious ways,” she whispered. “And his mercy endures forever.”