Let Perpetual Light Shine Upon Her

I have a heavy heart tonight, my friends.

It is so heavy that it seems to have plunged to my stomach and I don't know when it will be coming back to its place. I can scarcely believe what I am typing. In fact, I still do not want to believe it.

I received some tragic news this afternoon: a very dear friend of ours, a friend who we have come to think of as an extension of our family, has passed away very suddenly. She was young, only in her twenties, and she leaves behind her husband and her four day old infant son.

Even after typing that I want to jump back up and hit delete until I can erase it all.

S was Fiver's speech therapist for two years and she was the first person to begin the process of unlocking him from his mysterious inner world. It was largely through her that we discovered his other delays; she was the first to notice that something wasn't right and she got us in contact with Fiver's occupational therapist (who was S's best friend and who is deeply in grief this evening). In many ways, S uncovered Fiver's personality. She set him free.

She was a gentle, sweet person, who was beloved by her family and her patients, and, after working in pediatric rehab, she was so excited to become a mother for the first time. In our last conversation together, she said that she couldn't wait to hold her baby.

I spoke with Fiver's OT this afternoon, and she told me that S had had a wonderful, perfectly normal delivery, and her baby boy is beautiful. S went home with her little boy but came back into the hospital for some post partum complications, and she passed away this afternoon. The doctors still are not quite sure what the cause of death is, and right now her baby boy has been admitted for blood tests and a spinal tap. They are afraid that if she had an infection, he may have contracted it as well.

Please, please, I am asking you for your prayers tonight, even if you feel that you are not a praying person.

Pray for the repose of S's soul; pray for her husband, who is out of his mind with grief at the loss of his wife and the prospect of raising his son alone; pray for her little son, who may be sick and who will never get to smile up at his mother on earth; pray for her parents, who have a little grandchild but not their child; and pray for all of us who knew and loved her. Many little hearts will be broken by S's departure, and many of them may not be able to communicate the depth of their feeling.

Thank you.

Eternal rest grant unto her, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon her. May she rest in peace. Amen.

Watch, O Lord, with those who wake, or watch, or weep tonight,
And give Your angels and saints charge over those who sleep.
Tend Your sick ones, O Lord Christ.
Rest Your weary ones,
Bless Your dying ones,
Soothe Your suffering ones,
Pity Your afflicted ones,
Shield Your joyous ones,
And all for Your love's sake. Amen.

-St. Augustine