The Unwanted Phone Call

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By Brother Luke 


I am sitting at my desk Monday evening, and I can see the message light on the phone blazing red. I listen to the message. It is my brother-in-law asking me to call. So, I call. Phil answers my hello with a breaking voice, saying, “Susie died this morning at 5:30.” But the doctors had been saying all the time she was in the hospital that she would regain her strength and be home in a few days. But it was not to be. Just two weeks earlier I had called and talked to Susie. We talked about her plans and what the doctors had told her. They had said that they could not stop the cancer this time, but they could continue to fight it with chemo. So the plan was for her to regain her strength, go home, and then reschedule the last two chemo sessions. As we concluded our conversation we said our usual good-byes and our mutual sign-off: “I love you.”  I did not know at that time those were the last words we would speak to each other. The next day she became unconscious again and was taken back to the hospital emergency room.
Brother Luke and his sister, Susie.
On a short trip to Catalina Island, CA in 2005
 

Phil and I have spoken many times since Susie died. And the memories keep washing over me: memories that Susie can no longer fill in for me—my memories, but now incomplete. She and Phil are in my prayers. My brother Paul knows the grief. His wife, Pat, died of cancer a few years ago. He said Susie is now in a better place. After her recent suffering, this is true. When I made my chance phone call two weeks earlier, I believe God was calling her to him and knew that I would not be able to go to see her. We were given that last moment, that special graced good-bye with love.

Dear Susie: Memory Eternal!

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