Reflections

Grief & Life | Melissa Fretwell

5/18/2020

Reflection from Melissa

As I have journeyed through this pandemic as a hospice and hospital chaplain, I have been aware of the grief that comes in these days. I’ve been aware of the need to be with things as well as doing things. I am reminded that even in these days God is taking all things and making them new.

And the one who was seated on the throne said, “See, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true." - Revelation 21:5

Questions for Personal Reflection

What is it like for you as we engage in these spaces of grief and waiting?
What are you noticing that is dying while we wait?
What are you noticing that is being made new as we wait?
What words of faith give you comfort while we wait?

1 Comment

Janice Sapp

5/26/2020 08:16:50 pm

Hello Melissa! We have seen each other at worship services at Duke. I became a member in 2018 and have had some rough times with ill health during these 2 years. While I am in one piece which is joyful, I am 72 with underlying health issues that make Covid 19 especially dangerous for me. I try to look at my health issues as a motivation to get up from the chair and out of the bed. God gives me this day, this one day. I live in between the spaces of life and death, as we all do. I remember giving communion to a man in a local hospital near me in Northern Virginia dying of throat cancer. He had been restless and ornery. One of the nurses asked me to see him and see if I could understand what he wanted. So I went to his room; his wife was there; he was struggling to tell her something. For the sake of identification, I wore my "minister's" blouse and he stopped struggling. Pointing to me and his wife, he struggled to speak. He wanted -- not last rites -- but communion. Since he could not swallow, we found the bread and the wine in a form that he could take.. His response to this shared communion was immediate. He relaxed, became calm, and wanted his wife to sit beside him. After a prayer, I left.the room. What struck me was that he wanted to participate in God's meal, a shared time with his wife and me. We three living souls--although we were at different stations in our lives--we were living in the spaces between life and death. Bless you for what you do; chaplaincy to those who are dying and their grieving families is not easy, not convenient, but necessary. People who are dying want to live until they die. Janice Sapp

Grief & Life | Melissa Fretwell

Reflection from Melissa

Questions for Personal Reflection

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