It's still cold, but all day it's been pleasantly bright and sunny. I've been asked to celebrate at St John's tomorrow, as Mother Frances is on the sick list with a prolapsed disc that has frozen her shoulder. It will be a Requiem for Prince Phillip. I would have attended anyway, but being asked to offer the Mass is less of duty and more of an honour. I first became aware of him being in the public in the Coronation movie shown to use school kids in Ystrad Mynach cinema, weeks after the event. The striking image of him paying homage to his wife, very proper in terms of the consecration ritual of an hereditary head of state, but oddly counter cultural in those days. He gave his entire life to 'having her back' in the public realm, while being her soul mate and husband in private life. A great role model for anyone with eyes to see.
I went to the Eucharist at St Catherine's this morning, and afterwards collected a couple of pairs of latex gloves, obligatory to use in distributing Communion at present. and as the church hasn't yet resumed regular public services, there may not be a supply of gloves available there. I got caught out with that when I took services there last summer, but was rescued by a member of the congregation who had a spare pair in her car. Getting things perfectly right matters, but the devil as ever is in the detail.
On Monday, Clare's old friend Peter in Hamburg got in touch to say that he was about to undergo a lung transplant. He doesn't know how he came into contact with asbestos fibres, but in recent years the damage to his lungs has shown itself. He's been in hospital since Christmas out of contact with covid, which would have undoubtedly killed him. We were utterly amazed this morning to have a post-op video chat with him. Clare had only just got him on to the parish prayer list!
The eight hour transplant operation ended at two on Tuesday morning. Instead of days on a knife edge in ICU, the nurses had him out of bed and walking late yesterday. The transplant was it seems. a good match. He said how much he was enjoying breathing fully once more. It was wonderful to see his face and talk with him. Peter reflected on how this was the 60th year since Prof Christian Barnard did the first ever heart transplant in South Africa. The first patient died within hours but, as we say these days, proof of concept allowed the medical team to move from one success to another until now.
Miracle? Yes. Not the medical science or technology that made it possible, but the union of hearts and minds in medical teamwork that has given new life and hope to so many people over the past sixty years. The work of the Spirit, driving minds and wills to work in most sensitive and challenging circumstances for the good of others. Blessed be God forever! I say.
After cooking lunch, a couple of visits to the shops for groceries this afternoon. It's nice to see other shops opening up again with cheery proprietors smiling and greeting passers by. Clare went into town before lunch, and exchanged the cordless phones I bought yesterday for ones with lower radiation emissions, although we now have two phones instead of three. We got along with just two phones for the past ten years so it doesn't really matter. The new phones will be cleverer, more complex and annoying to program for use no doubt, but that's how it is these days.
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