Well folks.. it's Thursday again and that is the day on which I chose to write something in my Blog. Today I am going to tell you about why I realized a relationship between Science, Religion and Spirituality.
It all started the day my wife of over 34 years died. Suzanne was a very quiet person with a very persceptive personality, honed by many years as an operating room nurse. She loved being a Nurse and kept up with all the latest developments in the healthcare field from medicine to new procedures to heal us, patch us up and otherwise keep us healthy. So you see, I and our boys had access to the best health advice that anyone could get.
But, that did not help Suzanne. Sometime in the early 80's she contracted what was diagnosed as rheumatoid arthritis. We were living in a semi-rural community in western Michigan. The Docs there did what they knew best and that was to load her up with huge doses of aspirin. But that wasn't the answer. When she turned as yellow as a lemon and had virtually no strength I literally carried her to the car and took her to the nearest large city where they were able to stabilize her with gold compounds. And from there the beat goes on.
In 1986 we were transferred back to Delaware. Here we had access to more knowledgeable doctors... more sophisticated drugs. But even that didn't help. She gradually deterioated as treatment proceded. Being a member of the medical community, she was given every consideration. New drugs were tried. But some almost killed her on the spot and others were about as effective as a mosquito bite on an elephant. And she became a chemical dump.
Then just before Thanksgiving, 2005, she announced that she had to go into the hospital as an outpatient for some gall bladder treatment. And she didn't think that it was necessary for anyone to take her there because..."she would be back home the same day". It never happened. Somehow her gall bladder was nicked or whatever and she aspirated fluid into her lungs and contracted a chemical pneumonia. They moved her to ICU that weekend and of course we visited her to give support and cheering up.
That Monday, a cold and dreary Monday, I received a call from the hospital that Suzanne, my wife of over 34 years, was dead due to complications of the gall bladder surgery.
It was then that I became personally introduced to death as a reality. My parents had both died. But, it was at a time when I was out of town and not exposed to the intimate delails of their death. My sister also died in another state, out of time, out of mind. Now the cold realization of the short time we have on this earth came hurtling down on me like a bolt from the blue.
It was quite a few months later that I realized that the calm and control that I had during the days and weeks after the funeral was only gossamer-thin. I had to understand about life and death and where do we go after that. So I went into grief-counseling for perspective and I sat down for some reasoning beyond that of heaven, hell and purgatory as the ultimate destination. And that part of the journey I will describe for you next week.
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