The doctor, the priest, and the undertaker

Father Hanrahan was a priest at our Church oh, about 35 years ago. He was a good priest if a bit gruff, but that was part of why I liked him.

As happens with many of us later in life, he developed heart issues. Once he had had a heart attack while driving. He was able to get his car over onto the shoulder of the road, and two good Samaritans stopped to help. One gave him basic medical treatment and both waited until an ambulance arrived, and they each even hung around with the good padre's keys until another priest arrived with a tow truck to retrieve the car. Father survived the episode and lived several more years.

What makes this tale humorous though was that of the two who stopped to help, one was a doctor. The other was a mortician. When the stricken Father Hanrahan found this out he rasped to the undertaker, "I hope your buddy is good at his work and that you're only here just in case."

He worked the story into a sermon, as many good pastors will.