The Reluctant Patient:
A journey of trust
Ian G. Wallis
Circle Books £9.99
(978-1-78279-673-2)
Church Times Bookshop £9
THE patience of hospital chaplains must never be underestimated.
Sitting by convalescents' bedsides requires genuine compassion but
serious concentration also. Listening attentively to narratives of
the saved can be at once wearisome and joyful. What may be
fascinating details of medical intervention for one can be minutiae
ad nauseam for another.
Ian Wallis, a clergyman, tells his own story of recovery. A
heart problem was discovered that brought him very close to death.
In 12 short chapters, he invites his readers to watch beside him as
his breath falters in front of the television; to travel to the
operation theatre; and to rest at the sick bed back home a year
later. It is written soon after - in parts, during - the drama. The
reader becomes the listener, and the narrative a confession; and
the book's structure gives shape to the chaos that sudden
ill-health creates.
Despite the petty detail, a charming sense of wonder and
humility pervades this account. The priest, once stubbornly
inconvenienced by sickness, is now vulnerable, weak, and undeniably
terrified. Wallis describes, however, the way a "fuller sense of
personhood" arose through being a patient - that is to say, a
person who suffers and has something done to him.
Gradually he, God, and, indeed, his world are transfigured. For
instance, he describes with glee "the butteriness of friendship and
the zesty freshness of recovery".
It is within the closing chapters, once the dust has settled and
the shock has receded, that Wallis offers deeper and more original
reflection. As his vision of God enlarges, his sense of vocation is
clarified. The new life that is offered is embraced as a new
covenant. Moreover, the reality of death redefines the nature of
trust and brings him back to God. While not quite Julian of
Norwich, Wallis's reflections on the gift of faith and the gift of
life may well refresh others on their own long road to
recovery.
The Revd Jennie Hogan is Chaplain to Goodenough College and
Associate Priest at St Giles's, Cripplegate, in London.