My dear friends,
Well, it wasn’t the way the day was supposed to go. A week ago on Friday, I was walking around
at Southington Country Club. They were hosting Southington Catholic School’s annual golf
tournament. I went to meet the players and get some photographs. As the announcement was
being made for golfers to head to their carts, my phone rang. It was my mother. She informed
me that my father had driven himself to the local urgent care clinic and was quite ill. So I made
my excuses and headed off to get my mother.
I picked Mom up at home and drove her to the clinic. We were walked to the room where my father was. The nurse practitioner greeted us with news that he was dehydrated, in atrial fibrillation, and he had Covid. As he was being taken to the hospital, we had to wait to have Covid tests ourselves. The wait was more than an hour. They sent us home and promised to call with the results. After three hours of waiting with no call, I drove back to ask the results. My mother and I were both negative. Great! So I left Mom with my sister at home and I drove to see my father at the hospital.
When I arrived, the emergency room was overflowing. He had already been there fourhours waiting in a hallway. Because he was not in a room, I could not see him. If he had Covid, I could not see him. So he waited and I had to leave. He eventual was briefly checked and discharged after 10:00 PM. I headed back to the parish to catch up on other work I should have been doing all day long. It was not how I planned the day.
Things don’t always go as we plan. Sometimes changes come for which we can plan, and others come
with no warning. We could try to pretend there’s no issue, but that isn’t helpful. Sometimes, we need to
change to meet the needs of the situation. Our plans may fall to pieces, but we don’t have to do that. We
can face the challenge and deal with the reality and where it takes us. That is a more productive way to go
through life.
As we move toward the merger of parishes, I’m sure it’s not what anyone had ever planned for the parishes
of Southington. We can complain or try to hide from the reality, but that isn’t helpful. We are asked to see
the situation, respond as calmly and rationally as we can, and meet the task to be faced. It requires setting
aside other plans or ideas and meeting the new reality head on. It can be a challenge, but one we can meet. If we do this well, we should be fine. It is time to see what needs to be done and do it.
Hopefully yours in Christ, Fr. Joe