It was January 28, 1988. For many years I had visited the sick. On this particular day, I went to the hospital located on Hallandale Beach Blvd, just across from the Pembroke Parks fire station. It’s a nursing home now but back in 1988 it was a hospital. I stopped to visit a co-worker of mine from Barry College - it was a college then. It became a university years later. The professor I was to see had a serious drinking problem and a very bad episode landed him in the hospital. We met for a while and he told me he definitely was going to get into a program to deal with his problem.

            When I was leaving and began to enter the elevator the person on the elevator blurred out “It crashed, it crashed; no survivors.” I had no idea what he was talking about. I asked him what he meant, he replied - the Challenger, The Challenger! It exploded on lift off.’ I was stunned. It was a total surprise and sadness set in.

            It was January 20, 2003. I went to see Bob Blackburn at Hollywood Memorial Hospital. He had been in and out of the hospital numerous times, but now with some serious complications, he was a very sick man. In fact, he was in intensive care when I saw him. There were so many tubes in his body. There was a feeding tube in his mouth so he could not talk. He was being administered to by a nurse when I entered the room. Bob had his eyes fixed, more like transfixed on the TV. He couldn’t take his eyes off the television set. Yet he nodded his recognition of me and then continued to look at the TV. So I looked at the TV and I could see objects flying through the sky and streaks of white clouds tracking the objects. I guessed it was a documentary or some science program. I didn’t think too much of it; I began to pray with Bob and he motioned that I watch the TV and then the realization came to me. This was the space ship Columbia! It had broken up and was falling to the ground. I was stunned!

            Some time later when reflecting on that day’s events I came to realize when both space mishaps occurred I was visiting a sick person in a hospital.

            When the end of the world occurs and Christ returns I hope I am “caught” doing some good for someone.