In the morning the father was joking, and at lunch he lay down on the couch and folded his hands on his chest.
— Okay, daughter. — He said. I don’t think I’m going to get out now…
— — What are you, Dad? — Natalia protested. You just left the hospital today. You have to live now, after all, a little cured you.
— All right. — without listening to her, said the father. — It’s not good pressing in the chest…
And he closed his eyes.
Natalia herself worked for the ambulance, she saw a lot of deaths, and the fact that death really came to her father, she realized immediately. His face was not well whitened, his nose sharpened.
There was no doubt he was leaving… And Natalia, although she worked for the ambulance, did not know what to do. His father was 94 years old, he ran out of vitality, and no pills could restore them.
But just sitting there and watching my dad go was not good either. Natalia took the prayer book in her hands, began to look for the necessary prayer, but then the phone rang.
— This is Father Yevgeny! the voice of a friend of the priest rang out in the tube. I have spare Holy Gifts with me, I am going to commune sick. It’s not far from you. I could come in, Grigory Vasilyevich to commune…
— Come in, Father Eugene. — Natasha said. Communicate if you have time…
After hanging up, I looked at my father again.
Nope! Father Eugene didn’t have time.
My father wasn’t breathing.
Natalia touched the pulse, but there was no pulse, of course.
The doorbell rang.
Father Eugene came in and immediately asked:
— Grigory Vasilyevich, where? In the living room?
— Nope. — Natasha said. — He’s in his room. Only his father has already died, Father Eugene.
Father Eugene pushed Natalia away and went to the room where he visited his father many times during his illness.
— Gregory! — He said loudly. — Father Eugene is here! Will you take communion?
And then Natalia did not believe her eyes.
The deceased father rose slightly on the couch.
— Yes! he said.
And his father Eugene communed.
And Natalia made me bring a drink.
It was only when his father took two sips of warm, wine-sweetened water that he reclined on his pillow and closed his eyes forever.
Just sighed three times, that’s all.
Shocked Natalia listened to Father Evgeny read a retreat prayer, looked at the gift-bearer, at the ark standing on the table, at her father, whose face became even paler, and thought that everything remained the same as half an hour ago, when her father died for the first time.
Nothing has changed…
There was no death next to the deceased father.
And nowhere was she…
Author: Nikolai Konyaev
The Holy Land Charitable Foundation
Soul investment!
Orthodox stories from life
