IT was dark travelling to the hospital. A nurse had called asking if I had come to see an elderly patient who had taken a turn for the worse.

I could tell at one that this lady had a beautiful character; you just can.

She was receiving piped oxygen and was obviously close to dying. I introduced myself and sat beside her smiling gently at her.

“You’re nice,” she said. “I am going to die soon; I have had enough pain now and my husband is waiting for me.”

Her breathing was laboured but she was determined to speak. “I was baptised early in my life. Later I was re-baptised in the River Jordan. Jesus died for me and now I am going to die and join my husband. I want you to give me a blessing because my time for going is close.”

I read her a passage… ‘in my Father’s house are many mansions…’ and I blessed her… ‘May the Lord bless you and keep you…’ “Thank you,” she said, “I can go now.”

I sat with her for a long while and it was a beautiful event. And already I can hear the naysayers in the comments. Like Homer Simpson they don’t believe in ‘this phoney baloney God.’ They will say that religion has caused all the wars; that it has been the cause of division and hostility; that it is just plain pie in the sky – the great delusion.

Well these are views. But what I have seen when a person is coming to the end of their life is that people begin, again and again, to draw close to the Divine.

It may well be that there are no atheists on the battlefield but I’m not here to argue for the veracity of religion. I’m here simply to report that this lady’s faith and hope helped her to pass from one world to another. No arguments can take her experience away from her. She died later, and although I wasn’t there, I believe it was with faith and hope.