A friend’s mother fell and broke her hip almost two weeks ago. They had intended to have surgery right away, but she had an infection. So they put it off while they tried to figure out what to do to make the infection go away.

Today Anne told me that she was going to leave to go to her mother’s tomorrow and that she was concerned that her mother was not a believer, even though she has been a devout Catholic all her life. Why would she think that? It is because her mother told her that she thought “You die and that’s it. There is nothing beyond it.” I had brought One Month to Live to school to read. I offered it to Anne. She took it gladly.

Her mother died this morning, before Anne could even get to New Jersey.

Anne’s mother was in great health two weeks ago. Now she is dead. She didn’t even have one month to live.