It’s been decades since I’ve given this old customer of mine from long ago much thought. After all, he’s been dead 40 years. But I remember him well. One day he called in his prescription refill and I asked him if he would be in to pick it up. He said, “I would like you to bring it to me. I need to visit with you.” I was pretty darned busy but on the other hand, my home deliveries often produced the highlight of my day, so I told him OK. Later I drove out to his house. He lived in a house that is long gone now. I parked and went up to the door.

I knew this guy had a good education and read a lot. Especially medical books. When I walked into his living room, I saw his walls were lined with medical books. He saw me looking and said this is partly what I want to talk to you about. His nervous wife looked on. She had coffee ready, and we sat down and drank it. My customer then explained that years ago since he liked to read, he had bought a set of encyclopedias, a common thing to do back then. “I spent a lot of hours poring through them.” I sipped my coffee. It was tasty and hot. Better than what we had in the waiting area of my pharmacy.

He further explained that he found he had a lot of interest in medicine and in fact, the practice of medicine itself and one day he sent off for a set of medical practice books. He found them easy to read and he then explained that this act of his landed him on the mailing lists for similar types of literature. “I usually bought them, and I read them all,” he said. I then said, “that’s why you know so much about medical practice isn’t it?” He acknowledged as much and he said he had often daydreamed of being a doctor. I had already figured that much out, and we continued our conversation and finally I went back to my drug store. It had been quite a learning experience for me, and I think he enjoyed it.

I continued to enjoy his friendship over the years but one day he came in and said he wanted me to see his new Ford. I stepped out front and we looked it over and admired yet another Detroit masterpiece. I could tell something was wrong. “Well, you sure don’t seem as happy as you should considering you just got yourself the new car you wanted.” He looked all around and said, “Mr. Bullard, I’m in trouble.” What is it? He stammered and stalled but finally he looked at me and I looked in his eyes. He wasn’t kidding. He said, “I can’t remember where I live. I can find town and your pharmacy and the high school but I can’t find my house.” Trouble indeed.

I had him get in his new car and I ducked inside and told my wife that I was taking the man home. “He’s sick,” I said. I took him home to his frantic wife who explained to me he had started having these episodes. Turns out he had sudden onset Alzheimer’s. Inside my friend expressed his belief that he would die soon. He was right and about a month later his wife awoke and found he had passed.

One thing that always concerned him was what was to happen to him in eternity. He was a Christian and regular church attendee. But I had shared what I believed about life and Jesus and salvation. I also shared some other stuff. Something I kept a copy of in my wallet. Something King Solomon had written in the book of Ecclesiastes. The wise old King in his poetic Ecclesiastes basically said there was a time for everything. King Solomon had written that there was indeed a time for dying and all other things.

In Flossy Grogan’s Literature class over at Stonewall I had read William Shakespeare’s take on dying. He said, “Cowards die many times before their deaths; The Valliant never taste of death but once; of all the wonders that I have yet heard; it seems most strange that men should fear; seeing that death, a necessary end will come when it comes.”

For those of us saved through the miraculous works of Jesus, our everlasting life is already underway, and death holds little dread. Have a good week and be sure and