Bride And Groom

Hospital Visiting

My father-in-law was taken into hospital yesterday. They've got him on a medical assessment ward- in a bed across from the toilets with their bracing stink. He's a sociable man- and being in there with people to enquire about has bucked him up no end. I'm not saying loneliness is the only thing wrong with him- it isn't- but it's clearly a factor.  I left him telling Ailz and her mother about everything that was wrong with the other patients and went for a walk through what used to be my parish. I passed a couple of girls waiting for the bus into Oldham and thought, "Ha, when I was vicar here, you were nothing but eggs."  On the way back I snapped the headless figures in a window of a bridal emporium and -as I turned away- was hailed by a tall, acned Jehovah's Witness.  He told me that Jesus was the only way to eternal life. I told him- politely- that I disagreed.