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UPDATE
Let’s take it from here :
On Good Friday, April 2nd 2010, I arrived at the Institute in the early afternoon only to find that all activities (Good Friday service included) had been cancelled due to an outbreak of gastroenteritis. Several floors were under full quarantine (still are). On Father Allard’s floor the residents were/are still being allowed one visitor at a time. So we celebrated the Passion of our Lord together in his room and he received Holy Communion. Father Allard can only receive a small fragment of a Host now due to difficulties in swallowing. His one working arm/hand, no longer permits him the ability to place Holy Communion in his mouth himself … I had to place it on his tongue.
We followed this with about 2 decades of the Rosary, after which Father Allard couldn’t take any more - he was just too exhausted.
Holy Saturday afternoon, owing to an increasing weakness, Father Allard was brought Holy Communion in the form of viaticum. I suggested we read the gospel from the Easter Vigil in anticipation of its celebration elsewhere several hours later. Again, when we attempted to follow up with a Rosary, Father Allard could only take about 2 decades.
The hope was that Easter Sunday the Chaplain would still celebrate a private Mass in the chapel although the official Mass was cancelled due to no residents being allowed to circulate. In the past, this would happen and we were permitted to bring Father Allard down to concelebrate this Mass in the chapel.
Easter Sunday, the Chaplain did show up, but Father Allard had become much weaker (too sick to concelebrate) and remained in bed on oxygen. I brought him Holy Communion and we read the Gospel for Easter Sunday. Later in the afternoon after the rest of the apostolate had been completed, there was a little time to return and visit Father Allard.
On Monday April 5th one of Father Allard’s brothers was in to see him. We learned it was no longer simply a case of pneumonia. There is a serious disease of the blood now. It is unlikely that Father Allard’s weakened immune system can continue to win any battles and if he doesn’t respond to the antibiotics, they also may have to be withdrawn . What I’m relating (about the blood) is what I received from his brother over the phone in french so I’m not familiar with all of the french medical terms for blood disorders but this one would seem to have involve a low white blood cell count.
Yesterday, Tuesday April 6th , I was in to see Father Allard. He received viaticum, but due to very extreme difficulty swallowing I had to give him a fragment of Holy Communion about the size of the lead tip of a sharpened pencil, and then could only place several drops of water on his tongue to help him consume it. They are continuing to hydrate him intravenously .
He was read the Gospel . We tried a slightly different approach for the Rosary. I suggested , since he could give no audible response, that he could simply follow it with me, and that I would recite it slowly. After 2 decades, I explained to him where we were and which mysteries we were praying then asked if we should continue – He nodded. So we prayed two more decades and then completed the Glorious Mysteries praying the final decade after getting another nod of his approval.
When he was woken a little later by a loud noise out in the hallway , I prayed an hour of the breviary audibly standing right beside him so he could follow it. Up to that point, all the prayers had been in french, but I don’t know my way around a french breviary too well, so the hour was prayed in english. This didn’t bother Father Allard or impede his understanding at all. Actually, earlier in his life, as a missionary in Africa, he taught english to his parishoners.
It could be as early as today that treatment (antibiotics) may need to be withdrawn.
Although Father Allard has come back several times from some serious bouts with pneumonia, these latest developments present themselves as more critical, particularly in light that he continues to weaken.
We may well be approaching the moment when it is all consummated and Father Allard says in unison with our Blessed Lord, “It is finished.”
Hail Mary,
full of grace.
The Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou amongst women
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb,
Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners, now,
and at the hour of our death.
AMEN
ps @ OurLady01 : He got your message.
