Strangers in the Sky

The church I attend, St. Augustine's Episcopal Chapel, is located on the grounds of Vanderbilt University. Some Sundays you can hear the Life Flight helicopter as it comes and goes from the hospital. It happened this morning, just as we were beginning a time of silent prayer.

A friend of mine relied on such transportation more than once while her son battled a rare and aggressive form of brain cancer that took his life when he was just 11. They were in another state, taking off from and landing at a different hospital. But the whup-whup of the helicopter blades made me think of Alan, and his mother, and the strangers in the sky who needed help.