Let conversation cease. let laughter flee. This is the place where death delights to help the living
- Georgetown University School of Medicine Gross Anatomy Lab.
I take Ash Wednesday seriously. For me, it's a time of introspection and dealing with the fact that we are mortal.
I'm sharing part of a post that I wrote in 2014. It's a beautiful story about my David's choice to share himself, even in death. In 2012 David and I toured the new University of Central Florida College of Medicine. It was magnificent. When we got to the gross anatomy lab, where the students would be dissecting deceased bodies, I was a bit skeptical - but it was a holy experience.
Shortly after leaving, David made arrangements to leave his body to the school. I had a bit of a hard time with this and I was concerned about his children.
But then I read a Washington Post article by Dr. Edward Beal, a distinguished fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and a clinical profess at the Georgetown University School of Medicine
In the article he said that he was shocked when his wife announced that she was going to donate her body to the Georgetown School of Medicine. Dr. Beal goes on to say that he was remembering the old days when pranks were pulled and respect was not paid. When he expressed his concerns to his wife she told him she was going to attend the School of Medicine's annual liturgy and Catholic Mass for families of donors.
He went with her.
Dr. Beal said the room was filled with faculty, and family members who had come to collect the ashes of their loved one. He goes on to say:
...nearly 200 students filed into the classroom; they each carried a lighted candle in honor of their donor body and placed the candles on a stage. There were Jews, Muslims, Protestants, atheists and outright anti-religious students in the procession.
Afterwards Dr. Beal spoke with several students. One talked about her cadaver's heart and how it did not look like anything in a text book. Another student said there was no doubt in her mind that she would donate her body when the time came.
And yet another said that....throughout the entire class, the cadaver's faces had remained covered, out of respect, until the time came to study the face. She spoke almost reverently of how moved she felt the day she and her classmates removed the covering over the face of their cadaver and looked for the first time into the donor's eyes.
So, on this Ash Wednesday, which is very much about living and dying and how we do it, I'm feeling grateful for David and all the other people in my life who've gone on before me.
****
