Aunt Bridie Goes to Heaven

And let us not forget Aunt Bridie,

who is still with us, thanks be to God.

Eighty-nine and still going strong.

Wrong. Weak, but eighty-nine and still going.

And knowing exactly where she’s going. To heaven.

You don’t spend great chunks of your life

hunched in prayer, or on your knees in church,

without gaining a sense of direction.

You don’t mix with the cream of Irish clergy

without gaining some insight into life everlasting.

Having outlived seven siblings, two husbands

and an only child, she is no stranger to the deathbed.

Each night she rehearses that final scene

and worries about falling into a coma and missing it.

Worries too about the new priest, a good and holy man

by all accounts, but West African.

And when the Angel finally calls, Aunt Bridie will slip away.

And if St Peter’s not there waiting, there’ll be bloody hell to pay.