Monday 11 February 2013

Death be not proud

Sorry for the ominous heading but it sprang to mind after what I learned this week.

On the first day of my last shift I read an e-mail from a fellow Captain in our department.  In the e-mail he announced that he had been diagnosed with a form of pancreatic cancer.  He assured all of us that it was not the kind that usually kills in 6 months or less.  Still his only optimistic line was that he may have 10 years if his aggresive treatment regimen was successful.  Now, this fellow Firefighter is 45 years old.  He has a young daughter.  He is facing a grim outcome with an open ended date.

Oh how this hit me!  I sat and quietly cried for a minute or two as the horror of it all sank in.  So sad.

As firefighters we see death almost every cycle we work.  Very often it is an older person who died after long years of life.  Sometimes it is a young person in a car wreck or perhaps some trauma like GSW or stabbing.  Occasionally it is a middle age person who, like my firefighter friend, received a life altering diagnosis some months or years before.  But the truth of the matter is that we will all see death because it is an inescapable part of life.  It isn't a welcome part of our culture and that is why we try to hide it away whenever possible.  Our elderly are neatly tucked into "Assisted Living" or "Long term care" or "Adult Family Home".  All of these are clean euphemisms for a very ugly process... because getting old and dying is so very often ugly and filled with body fluids and disfiguring events.  I understand it.  I get it.

So what am I trying to say?  There is comfort and courage to be found in the way faith faces this certainty of life.  I can't imagine life without it.

Meanwhile... I will pray for my fellow Captain and his family.  God grant him the strength and the grace to face what will surely confront us all.