A Reason, A Season and a Lifetime

I had quite an amazing experience a few months ago. We had a hospice patient who came on one day and died the next, so none of us got to know him or his family very well. But his last name was the same, very uncommon name of a very dear friend of mine from Seminary, who died our second year, of Liver Cancer. I called the daughter of our patient to offer condolences, as part of our bereavement follow up. But as a part of our conversation, I asked her if by chance she had family from Montana. She said yes. To make a long story short, she is my friend's cousin! We had a delightful conversation about him. (He died 25 years ago!).
But it was when I got off the phone I thought about him more and realized what an amazing impact Mark had on my life, even though we only knew each other for a little over a year. When he was diagnosed, we had a few from the seminary who went to sing and pray for healing, and then told him to get out of his bed and walk. Mark told them to stop their healing experiments on him, and leave him alone. The second group came in and gave him a cassette tape with a "special message." His mom listened to it before she would consider giving it to him. The message was that the reason he was dying was because of unconfessed sin in his life! Let's just say, she did a ceremonial burning and Mark never heard the tape. She then asked him who he really wanted to see. He made a list of 6 people, of whom I was honored to be included.

But, it was because of Mark that I pursued Hospital chaplaincy training. I went and took an internship at a local hospital, and followed that with a part time job at another hospital, and followed that up with almost 2 year residency in CPE.(Clinical Pastoral Education). It is because of Mark that my passion is Pastoral Care, and why I am a Spiritual Care Counselor today! So, in a sense, he was in my life for just a short season, but for a major reason, that effected my lifetime!! And here I am 25 years later, as the Spiritual Care Counselor for his cousins! WHOA!! Talk about coming full circle! I asked his cousin about Mark's parents. She told me his dad died, but to her knowledge his mom was still living. His cousin gave me her address and I wrote her a letter about how Mark impacted my life. A message any mom would want to hear. I got a response back a few months ago from Mark's sister, thanking me for the letter and informing me that it arrived just a few short months after her mom's death. But she said how much she appreciated hearing about my experience, and that Mark was still remembered. Just had to share this with all of you. A very poignant day indeed!
Susan