Dad on Maurice Nedoncelle's death.

My mom, dad, and eldest child Elizabeth went to Strasburg, France, in the fall of 1975 for my dad to begin his doctoral studies under the great Fr. Maurice Nedoncelle. My father's theology courses were taught in French and I believe that he typed his term papers in French, but he didn't keep any of them. I may write later about stories I've heard from their two years in France.

In September 1976 my sister Teresa was born in California and they flew back to France not much later. That fall Fr. Nedoncelle became terminally ill, I believe from lung cancer. He turned 71 in October. My dad told me stories about Nedoncelle's death. His mother was still alive and healthy and would visit her son in the hospital. Often when my dad visited Nedoncelle would be reading newspapers written in the local Alsatian dialect (sort of a combination of French and German, I think). My dad asked him why he was doing that instead of preparing for death. Fr. Nedoncelle told him that one is called to live in the present, and that by being present he was preparing for death.

He didn't talk about it, but I think that this had an impact on my dad's own death. He, like Nedoncelle, died a few weeks after his 71st birthday. Dad, as his friends know, did not retreat into himself during those last weeks, but rather received a number of visitors and gave parting advice to his students.