the good things

spent hours with a family

in-between i raced to the ER

a car crash with a baby and her mother

she worried about what happened to her little brother

i spotted him on a gurney

the doc checked him out

he was fine

and i relayed the news to his sister

before they wheeled her away for tests

back to the family

their piano playing patriarch who met his wife on New Year’s Eve

slowly slipped away

i had time to minister to each member individually

i can still remember after he died

the daughter asking “what do we do now?”

it was the moment that told me that i could

soon i would be moving downtown

bigger hospital a trauma center

i had to grow on tired feet

anything that you can imagine is

worse than you ever will see

the work takes over inside a square room

you learn to collect, comfort, and communicate

families are waiting while

patients try to process what happened to them

i’ll help you through it

i’ll make sure your family knows

the biggest thing is the connections

meeting a stranger and leaving a friend

baptizing the littlest of the little

the greatest empowerment is

knowing you helped someone

I always preferred patients over practioners

I can measure that in degrees

a seventy year old woman

she had a stroke

she had cancer

she looked at me as an advocate

and she always liked my suits

i saw the patients passed down to the first floor

not everyone wants to go to rehab

no no no

but most of them do

a 71 year old man trying to regain the feeling in his legs

he said

i’m going to walk out of here

and when he wiggled his ankle

he had me called for the nurses

and once they left

he said

preacher your prayers got me there

i had to leave him before i was finished

hospitals do things in units

in their time

before i left

he said

i consider you to be a dear friend

there’s another chaplain on the horizon

and a friend out the door

Reviews

[Becky C Strukamp]

You have what it takes to be who you are ...and who you were meant to be...kuddos my dear friend.

[Marie Harrison]

Wow! What a whirlwind of activity and emotions.
I had no idea what it would be like to be a chaplain.
So much pressure
So many lives off balance
Being needed in such desparate points in their lives
Amazing insight your poem brings.