I have an aunt who is not in very good health. She is diabetic and her kidneys are only working at 20%. She is my godmother and her name is Janet.
She was just released from the hospital before Easter where she was being treated for a leg infection. An elderly woman, Marie, who was in rather good shape for 91 years of age (still spry and driving) decided to stop by and see my aunt for the first time in 7 years. As she went up the steps outside, she fell - hitting her head on the concrete. The woman is now in ICU on life support. My poor godmother is beside herself. The hospital, nor my aunt, had any idea how to contact next of kin. There was someone listed, but they were elderly and no one was answering. I stopped by the apartment complex where the woman supposedly lived, only to find that they (the staff) were concerned because she was not back yet. I explained that she was in ICU in very bad shape. They managed to reach someone - a brother I guess. She really had no one left but him and a small handful of 90-something seniors at the apartment where she lived.
I called the parish where she went weekly for Mass after learning the hospital said she was not likely going to survive. I think they were keeping her on life support until family could come. I asked the parish secretary to please convey to the pastor that the woman had gone to Mass there each and every Saturday for many years and for him to consider going up there to give her the Sacrament of the Sick, if possible.
The woman's car remains in the driveway of my distraught aunts house, as do her glasses which the paramedics said she wouldn't be needing.
My prayer, and I ask of you, is for her to be anointed, if it is God's will. May he give her safe passage.
A lesson to us all - keep something in your wallet or your purse with a list of friends and family members to call for emergencies. If they can't reach one, they can try another.
The greater lesson is to go to confession frequently because we know not the hour of our death. Examine your conscience nightly and make an act of contrition, even for venial sins.
