Her name was Catherine. I did not know her, but was asked to visit and bring Jesus to her, in Holy Communion. She resided in a nursing home and dying of stomach cancer.
Although I had visited and ministered to dying people in the past, I was taken aback when I walked into Catherine’s room. She was very frail and weak and quite emaciated from the disease. Cancer had taken its toll, and she was, for the most part, bedridden. She spoke very softly and I needed sit close to her in order to hear. It seemed clear to me that death was not far off and that her suffering was intense.