Dead Man Talking

Yesterday afternoon the kids and I were at home waiting for Chuck to get there. I had the scanner on... because dispatchers are nosey and have to know what goes on when they are not at work ... and heard Rescue, Medic and First Responders being toned out for a man with an internal defib that had shocked him 3 times in the last 5 minutes. I was only half listening to the scanner to see if Chuck was responding.
I heard the dispatcher give directions to responding units saying, "... the house just north of the church." ... north of the church? The only house just north of the church is the parsonage. Then my brain started to process the information I had heard but didn't pay close attention to... 'a man with an internal defib, house north of church... hummm, that would have to be the Pastor... our Pastor is only in his late 30's. A few months ago he had some heart issues and an internal defib was put in ... I called dispatch to see what the name was and it was the Pastor.
One First Responder was on scene so I decided to run over there. I told the boys to turn off their play station and watch the girls for a few minutes. I drove the few blocks over to the parsonage and went in.
First I checked with the Pastors wife to see if she needed any help with the kids or making phone calls. She had things covered so I helped carry in the cot. The hallway was very narrow as was the door to the room the Pastor was in. I stood in the hall with two other First Responders. After the EMT and Medic did thier assessment, we loaded Pastor onto the cot.
Before we carried the Pastor out, he gave some instructions to his wife. He listed these things off as if he had just got called away on a business trip and needed his secretery to amend his itinerary. He was very 'matter of fact' about the whole thing
A very eerie feeling came over me. I was standing next to a 'dead man talking'. Less than 15 minutes ago this man's heart died. If it weren't for his internal defib this whole scene would be much darker...... Pastor's wife would be sobbing with grief.... adrenaline would surge through the Medic and EMTs as they begin to perform pointless CPR, sweat pouring off their brows as they try to pump this man back to life..............but instead, Pastor is calmly laying there making sure his schedule is being taken care of.
Life and Death, seperated by such a fine line