The following story was sent to us by one of our Women of Grace facilitators. It’s a beautiful witness to the devotion and faithfulness of our priests who put themselves and, as this story illustrates, even their lives on the line every day for no other reason than to save souls for Jesus Christ.

It was a miserable, dangerous night as I left the emergency room entrance to trudge through the blowing 8 inches of snow and ice to the rear of the parking lot where my car was parked.

My husband had just been transferred by ambulance from a rehab earlier that day due to low blood count and influenza B as well as other complications from a recently diagnosed fast moving cancer.

After 12 hours at my husband’s side, I had to get home and see if our old furnace was doing the job. I did not want to leave my husband in his condition, because the hospital was filled with flu patients and I knew he would spend 23 hours in the emergency room waiting for a bed on one of the floors. Thankfully, he had been given several units of blood and other medicines as well as fluids as he was badly dehydrated, so I thought this would be a good time to go home and check on the furnace.

I scraped the thick coating of ice and snow off of the windshield as the wind howled around my body making it hard to breathe. I slowly drove out of the parking lot and navigated the icy roadway towards home several miles away. There were cars stopped and accidents being cleared up as I drove on. I had to park along the street by my house as my driveway was impassable. The snow drifts were knee high – higher than my boots – as I waded up to the back porch and opened the door.

It was cold in the house - 50 degrees. Who could I call? I remembered the fuel company that services our home had an emergency contact. I called and a man answered and said that someone would be coming from another town to service the furnace in about an hour. I was so relieved as it was very cold and I was afraid the pipes would freeze. But he called back 15 minutes later and said that the icy roads were too dangerous for his crew to come out and they would have to wait until the next morning.

After turning on all the water faucets to drip slowly to avoid frozen pipes, I called my next door neighbor who kindly said I could stay at her home so I made my way through the drifts to her place. I was so worried about my husband and was going to call the hospital as soon as I got settled in her guestroom. But before I could call the hospital, my phone pinged. It was 9:32 P.M. I will never forget that text. It was from our parish priest. This is what it said, "I just anointed your husband again. He was in good spirits. I pray you get some much needed rest. God bless.”

I don’t know who contacted him about my husband. It was too dangerous for the repair crew to come to my house but our concerned priest thought nothing of endangering his own life to make sure my husband was ready for the next life…eternal life.

I will forever be grateful for the prayers and actions of that parish priest as my husband continues to work on his recovery.

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