The Saints Among Us: A Series by Carolyn Phillips

Come to this table you who have much faith and you who would like to have more, you who have been here often and you who have not been for a long time, you who have tried to follow Jesus and you who believe you have failed.
Come, Christ the Risen Lord invites you to meet him here.

We are starting this series because I firmly believe that we can learn from and inspire each other. I hope this leads to developing deeper meaningful relationships beyond sitting next to each other at church. So, we are embarking on The Saints Among Us where we can delve a little deeper, share insights and hear some uplifting stories.

Mark Robinson

Mark Robinson sat down with me at his home right before Thanksgiving. He is a local family physician and one of the founding fathers of the Cabarrus Family Medicine Residency Program and Practice. His story stems from his experiences in early 2016 when the tables were turned and he became a patient.

Last January, Mark experienced a blood clot in his lung called a pulmonary embolus. He had one previously related to flying, and knew what was causing the pain with breathing. It was one snowy weekend last January when he went to the ER and was fortunate to get diagnosed, treated and released from the emergency room with one of the new oral blood thinners. “I was so grateful to not have to be admitted for 2 days like the first time I had a blood clot in Kansas City.”

Mark has had several serious personal medical experiences. When he was 38, he had chest pain with exercise. A cardiac catheterization at CHS NorthEast found a 95% blockage in the large artery to his left ventricle. A blockage in this artery is known by doctors as the “widow maker” as heart attacks in this artery can cause sudden cardiac death. Fortunately, his personal cardiologist, Dr. Paul Campbell, could stent this and Mark did well for 20 years of full activity including very strenuous cycling.

Switching gears back to last year, one month later after his blood clot, he experienced a different chest pain. The pain was very mild but occurred while on the treadmill and resolved with rest. He self-diagnosed a return of the same angina pain he had 20 years ago. Dr. Campbell admitted him that day, ruled out a heart attack, and the next day did a heart cath which found his right and circumflex coronary arteries were seriously blocked. The blockage in the right artery was quite long and very difficult to stent. It required two stents back to back to open the artery, and unfortunately to open this main artery with stents it was necessary to sacrifice a smaller artery in the process causing a small “heart attack” which resulted in severe chest pain after the stents. Mark required narcotics and several other medicines to relieve his pain and treat the heart attack. He went home in 2 days, but within 24 hours of being home he developed yet another kind of pain with breathing and was up all night with shortness of breath. He was miserable and reluctantly went back to the hospital where he was found to have a heart rate in the 30’s from the new medications, and was readmitted to the hospital.

It was a Saturday, and after some tests Mark was diagnosed with an irritation in his pericardium, called Dressler’s syndrome. At this point he was deflated, dejected, and discouraged. This episode with illness wasn’t going to be a quick in and out, and he wouldn’t get back to work and on the bike any time soon. To make matters worse, he was not able to rest on the crazy inflating hospital bed. If you have had the pleasure of sleeping on those beds, then you would probably swear they were designed so you won’t sleep! As he reflected on all this, the realization came to him that he needed some spiritual healing along with all the medical care he was getting.

The next day, Sunday morning, he texted Chuck Collier asking if someone might be able to bring him communion. Sometime after noon, Dave Millar, Jane Liles and Ragan Kearns brought Mark and his wife Karen communion in his hospital room. They provided the communion service, which included the Psalm 91, which is the source of the lyrics for the song “On Eagles Wings.” This was a song that meant a lot to Mark, so much that he had named a sailboat after it. Mark was too overcome with emotion to say any of the psalm that day, but he didn’t need to. He just needed to be still and know that these dear friends and saints from church were there for that. It was an emotional experience and one he will never forget. He explained “… a wonderful sense of peace came over me, and my pain went away.” He was able to go home the next day.

This experience of receiving communion consecrated at the altar of All Saints’ delivered lovingly to him by “brothers and sister in Christ” had a profound effect on Mark. Jane, Dave, and Ragan are “very special to me now after this experience, and Communion at All Saints’ is different for me now.” He often tears up when he hears Nancy give the invitation to communion that starts this story. “Come to this table…”

Mark has been a lifelong Episcopalian. He was raised in the church at St. Alban’s Episcopal church in Danielson, CT where he attended Sunday school, served as an acolyte, sang in the choir, and was active in EYC. In college at Brown, he went to University Church which in the early 1970’s used trial versions of the liturgy we now know as Eucharistic Prayer C. To this day, he is moved by these words found on p. 370 of the Book of Common Prayer:

At your command, all things came to be: the vast expanse of interstellar space, galaxies, suns, the planets in their courses, and this fragile earth, our island home.

He and Karen, his beloved wife of 36 years, have been active in Episcopal churches in the states of Pennsylvania, Washington, Georgia and North Carolina. Mark is a member of the Saturday morning Men’s group whom he loves as brothers. He invites other men to join the group! He is so grateful for all these men do for each other, our parish, facilities, and grounds. For many years, he and the garden and grounds volunteers have worked to steadily improve the lovely green spaces we are blessed with at All Saints. He bought a tractor to be able to do more to develop our grounds into gardens of healing. In all honesty, he had some other motives for the tractor.

In addition to heart disease, Mark also has had episodes of major depression (which is a whole separate story). He has experienced some bad side effects from some of the medications, so he is always looking for other sources of healing such as exercise and working outdoors. Mark lit up describing his “tractor therapy.” We walked over to the shed he had built to store his John Deere tractor, while describing the trek that he takes over to All Saints with it. I could just imagine him beaming with joy working the tractor on the All Saints property. Mark is convinced that time spent landscaping, mulching, pruning, and gardening “this fragile earth” is healing, spiritual work. He muses about starting a “therapy farm” in retirement.

I asked Mark, “What did he want people to take away from our conversation? He replied, “that the Body and Blood of Christ we receive at Communion is healing. If you’re too sick to come to church, ask for communion to be brought to you.” All Saints has a different meaning to him now. He shares, “Jane, Dave, and Ragan visited me when I was sick. God was present with us in that hospital room. The communion nourished my mind, body, and spirit, and changed me forever.”