Groundhog Day

On the second day of February, most folks have an awareness that it's Groundhog Day.  It's on the calendar after all. Groundhog Day is a peculiar holiday, if one could call it a holiday. It's commemorated in a town fairly close to where I live, Punxsutawney, PA. Punxsutawney Phil, the esteemed groundhog, emerges from its burrow and the human observers determine whether the squinty rodent has seen its shadow, or not. The day was whimsically and dramatically portrayed in the 1993 film by the same name, Groundhog Day, with Bill Murray playing the character of Phil Connors. Phil, a reporter sent to do a story on Groundhog Day, experiencing it over and over and over again. 

Margaret at her K-State graduation

February 2 was Margaret Kritsch Anderson's birthday. 

Of course, when her birthday would roll around in our Lutheran Campus Ministry circle at K-State, we'd have to joke about it being on Groundhog Day. Born in 1977, she would have been 39 years old. As I've written and you may well know, Margaret was murdered on January 1, 2012. On that New Year's Day, in Mount Rainier National Park, Margaret was fatally shot in the line of duty on the road to Paradise at Mount Rainier National Park. Margaret responded to a call to intercept a vehicle that failed to stop at a chain-up checkpoint. The driver of the vehicle opened fire on Margaret, killing her, and then he fled on foot into the woods and later died of exposure.

Margaret on her last day of work, December 31, 2011, in Mount Rainier National Park

A photo I took at Margaret's memorial service, her boots are in the foreground

Our Thiel College student group at the 2015 ELCA Extravaganza

February 2 is also another poignant day of remembrance for me and one that I haven't been able to write about until today.  A year ago, I was with eight amazing Thiel College students and two great colleagues in ministry, Pastor Laurie Carson and Vicar Tara Lamont Eastman, at the ELCA Extravaganza for youth and family ministry in Detroit, MI. We were having a marvelous time until the morning of February 2. 

We were getting ready to head into another great morning session, when I got a call from Louie urging me to come up to his room. Something was wrong with his roommate, Cody Danner. I raced up to their room and discovered Cody in distress. Cody was recovering from a surgery to repair a break in the small bones in his foot. He needed to be in a wheelchair and Louie had been wheeling him around to the events of our gathering. Louie said that Cody had tried to get up and had fallen down, twice. He was disoriented and his face with a pale shade of blue. I asked Louie questions, I asked Cody questions about what he could feel, about his heart and I felt his forehead. It was icy cool. Cody, it seemed to me, was dying! 

"We have to call 911," I told Louie. So, I grabbed the room phone and dialed the front desk. I urgently told them that we needed emergency crews to come. While we were waiting, I messaged others in our group to let them know that we had an emergency. I asked Cody's friend Cheryl to come up and be with us. The first responders were the hotel medics. They tried to get a pulse, to no avail. Quickly, they applied oxygen. The EMT guys arrived next and took over, put Cody on a stretcher and wheeled him down to the lobby. Detroit was under a snow emergency and there were near blizzard conditions. Louie, Cheryl and I were allowed to ride in the ambulance with Cody.  We were whisked off to the Detroit Medical Center Emergency Room.  

After much waiting and testing, the doctors discovered that Cody had a large pulmonary embolism lodge in the saddle between his lungs near his heart. Had we waited or had other decisions been made, Cody would have surely died, they told him. 

We spent many long, tense hours in the hospital. Cody had authorized me to call his family and his fiancee way on the east coast of Pennsylvania to tell them about his condition. His mom posted this prayer request on her Facebook page: 

"Hi everyone I am asking for your prayers for our boy Cody Danner. He is in the hospital and we are waiting on an update from Pastor Jayne who is now my angel for being with my son at his time of need when we can't be there. She is a blessing to my family right now. I just ask for prayers that everything will be okay for our son. Be strong buddy your family loves you lots." 

Cody's family mom, dad and fiancee jumped in the car and headed toward Detroit. Meanwhile, I stayed with Cody and my other friends stayed back with the rest of the students at the hotel. We had to get them back to Thiel and I was going to remain until Cody's family made to Detroit. 

Cody and the Thiel College group joining in prayer-time in the ICU

Thankfully, Cody's surgery was successful and, with the permission of his nurses, we were all able to squish into the ICU room and share prayer time with him. The Thiel students took off for Pennsylvania and his family made it to the hospital. Once Cody was stable enough to leave, I rode back with them to campus. Cody wanted to stop in to say hello and thank you to his choir friends and band members who had been praying for him through his life threatening ordeal.

For me, this was a soul-draining experience and I think it's difficult for most folks to comprehend what it was like. I'm pretty sure that few have any idea what some pastors do in the hospital helping folks. We do everything from making friends with and engaging the nursing staff, to making inquires for the patient and the family about when the doctor will be coming by and how the tests are coming along. Essentially, we are advocates, running point and helping things happen to hopefully run smoothly for all involved in the midst of a very stressful situation.  When you're the only one available with a young person and the family is hundreds of miles away, the job is pretty intense. I'm so grateful that Louie had the presence of mind to call me and that I could be there for Cody in "his time of need" as his mom said. 

When Groundhog Day rolls around, it's filled with all sorts of memories and moments; with feelings of the sadness that comes from missing Margaret on the one hand and a sense of grateful relief that Cody is still here on the other. Cody graduated from Thiel College in May of 2015 and is back home with his family getting ready for his own wedding day. So, I give thanks to God and to all the medical people who took care of Cody and helped him mend. Cody and the rest of the students had an experience that will bind them together in ministry and friendship for the years to come. 

This is a holy calling and a blessing - this life in campus ministry amidst the gifted young adults and all the rest of the community who love them.