Grieving in Absence: A Story of Friendship, Loss, Grieving and God’s Presence

Margaret's illness struck without warning. She went down quickly with meningitis, then plunged into a coma, spending weeks in a state of unconsciousness, not aware of the world around her. What is unique about Margaret's story is that while she was unconscious, her friend died. While still in a coma, she was blessed with a blissful encounter with her dead friend and God. Paul picks up the story and tries to make sense of his own inability to communicate the bad news: he relates Margaret's absence from her friend's funeral to his own absence at his own father's funeral. Paul also reflects on the questions of why some of us fall ill and are healed while others fall ill and die, despite our desperate prayers for them to be healed. He concludes that when we are not able to attend our dear ones' funerals and grieve with families and friends, we are to find comfort in the knowledge that God is with us wherever we are; that when we are given more years to live, God wants us to do something new with our lives to his praise and glory; and that dead or alive, we are always enfolded in God's loving presence.