Sometime in the afternoon of last Friday, which was passing by ever so slowly, I received a page from the duty chaplain, asking me to call a relative of a person in the CICU. Apparently, they wanted to discuss something with me. So, I rang up the number and heard the story of how the man now in the hospital had flown all the way from LA with his wife to renew their marriage vows on their 25th anniversary in the church where they were married. But, he got critically ill two days before the big event and was now in the hospital. The priest who was to do the service had to attend a bishop's funeral downtown and was unavailable. Would I be willing to renew their marriage vows in the hospital room that afternoon? I was stunned, but quickly said that I would be glad to do so and would await their arrival. After I hung up, a thousand questions ran through my head: What should I do? Can I do this? How do I do this? Did they have something planned? Oh boy! So, I went downstairs to the chaplain's room and read through the Holy Matrimony section of my prayer book (when all else fails, revert to the BCP!). Then, I researched renewal of marriage vows on the internet and found several nice liturgies. So, pulling from a few, plus the BCP, I developed a pretty nice service I think. Actually, I was rather proud of it - and, it could be adapted to any particular needs they had with ease. So, I then went back up to the CICU and approached the room. When I entered, they informed me the priest had called and would be able to make it, but thanks very much for my offer. I felt relieved for them that their priest could come, but somewhat sad that I wouldn't get to have this opportunity. I decided I'd stick around and watch. As it turns out, the man's bride is Filipino, and the renewal service was to be done in their style. Hordes of family began to show up dressed in all sorts of beautiful traditional garb and I actually felt relieved that I wasn't doing it; I don't think I'd of known what to do with all that! Well, as it turned out, it was a wonderful service, adn was the highlight of that unit's week, hands down. Several nurses shed a tear of joy and there were smiles all around. It definitely lifted the spirits of everyone involved and I was glad this couple could go through with their original intent. Later that night, I had my on-call shift from 12:30am to 8:30am. I arrived already sleepy and once I took the pager, decided I would go to sleep in the chaplain's room until it went off. So I did, and it did, at about 3:00am. It was a Code Yellow, but thankfully for all involved, not a very complicated one. At about 4:30 I went back to sleep and the pager rang again at 5:30, a code yellow x2 (meaning two patients). I went back to the ER, groggy, only to find that it was cancelled! Grrr! So, I went back to sleep and slept all the way through the night until 8:15 when my alarm went off. It was a new experience for me - a very restful on-call!

-R

PS - I should note here (thanks Hudd) that my family and my house are all fine. Hurricane Charley hit us pretty much dead on at full force there in Fort Myers, but we pulled through ok. Lost our mailbox and a bunch of trees, but they were exotic trees anyway and we wanted them gone! However, do pray for those folks who lost everything, the thousands who are homeless, and the 19 who lost their lives.