Brother Victor

Brother Victor, aged 91, died last night about 9:30. His last illness was brief; he refused to go to the hospital, preferring to be cared for here; our infirmarians made sure he was comfortable. We took turns sitting with him for the last few days and he died peacefully with his nephew and one of our novices with him.

When I entered 4 years ago, Victor was getting around on a motorized scooter. Each morning he would be in the kitchen, chopping vegetables for our lunch. He had been a cook years before; and our laundry man for a number of years. He entered as a lay brother. (Lay brothers were not ordained, followed a simpler round of offices, and concentrated on manual labor. In the renewal of monastic life following Vatican II, that status was done away with; the former lay brothers here continue to follow a simpler round of offices.) In the last couple of years, Victor remained in the infirmary, becoming ever more deaf. But he always greeted monks with a smile. I would often go up at suppertime when Victor would have his raw vegetables and canned mackerel; we would exchange smiles and greetings.

It is odd how familiar dying has become to me. I am now alert to various changes in breathing. When I sat with Victor on Tuesday evening, he was still fairly alert; he would turn his head and smile; his breathing was fairly even and frequent. By the following morning, his eyes remained closed and his breathing was slower and shallower.

We will receive his body at 5:00 this evening, take turns sitting with him in church, and have his funeral Mass in the morning, laying him in his grave with the 50 others in our cemetery.