Download - The Perfect Wisdom Web

Be Not Afraid AnticipationWhen Winifred, an elderly editor I know, wasscheduled for heart surgery, she looked forward tothe possibility of a new, healthy lease on life. She hadsuffered for years from a debilitating condition, andher doctors recommended heart valve replacement.On the other hand, she did not ignore the seriousnessof the procedure, and privately prepared for the worst.She started with her desk. Though it normally wasstrewn with messy piles of books and folders on everyavailable surface, the afternoon before her surgery itwas uncharacteristically bare: everything was stackedneatly, as if waiting to be sorted by someone else. Laterthe same day she asked a co-worker, Kathy, for a chanceto talk privately. Kathy says it was “nothing big” – afew misgivings that still burdened her conscience aftermany years, including an incident when, as a teacher,she had been overly harsh and impatient with thechildren in her care.Winifred came out of surgery in a semi-consciousstate, and died several days later – without being ableto say goodbye to her husband and their five daughters.Winifred was seventy-nine, and had a host of medicalcomplications. Had she not had surgery, and died ofher heart problems, no one would have been surprised.As it turned out, however, her daughters were besidethemselves with grief and self-reproach. Everyone hadknown there were risks. But this was the last thing they6