I've been in Birmingham for a couple weeks now, after a short stint in Vicksburg, and will have my first solo 12-hour on-call shift tonight at the hospital. It's been kind of a sad day for me and I'm a little nervous about tonight. Thursday, while finishing the required new-to-UAB scavenger hunt to try to find different units of the hospital, I walked in on a code. All the staff chaplains and chaplain residents were in a staff meeting and I was in a part of the hospital that requires either a 15-minute walk or a shuttle ride. All that is to say I was it as far as chaplain support for a while.

The code involved the husband of a woman who was really scared about losing the one person who had been there for her. She had some family a few hours away but her husband was really the only person she had, and she clearly loved him. She didn't know what she would do, and I of course had no answers for her. On top of her being alone, it was clear she had very little in the way of financial means. I was able to keep it together to be with her but she's been on my mind most of the day. All I can think to do for her is pray.

It wasn't the first death I'd seen here; I think it maybe was the third. But the thing about this death was this woman, who seemed so small and shaky and frightened in the corner of the hospital room, where she sat and rocked as no less that half a dozen doctors and nurses tried to revive her husband. I left about 40 minutes after meeting her, soon after the chaplain assigned to the unit arrived, soon after her husband passed. Again, all I can think to do is pray that she will feel the presence and peace of God.