Andy...The Fish From The Silver Stream
I recently led an RCIA session on the topic of the Bible. Since the Bible contains sacred stories that point to God’s loving presence in the world, I shared one of my own sacred stories with the group.
In the fall of 1998, I was a catechist teaching sixth-grade Religious Education classes at Resurrection Parish. There was a student in my class that year by the name of Andy. Andy had been battling a brain tumor for years; and though he had once been able to run, play and speak like any healthy child, by the time he reached my classroom door, he was in a wheel chair. Although moving and speaking was an arduous process for Andy, his intelligence, engaging sense of humor and courageous spirit burned brightly for an hour every Monday night, inspiring me and my room full of healthy, active sixth-graders. As Andy’s disease progressed, he began missing class frequently. It was odd to me how keenly I felt the absence of this child who rarely moved or spoke.
One day, after Andy had missed several classes in a row, the Director of Religious Education, Sister Jenny, called to tell me that Andy was in hospice care at home. Before I could arrange to visit, Sister Jenny called again to say that he had slipped into a coma. When I hung up the phone, I immediately went to my computer desk. I wanted to write a letter to Andy’s parents telling them how much his presence in class had inspired me, and to offer my prayers for their family. I sat down at my desk to write the letter; but then, without even thinking about it, I began to write a story about a bright little fish from a beautiful silver stream. As the story unfolded, the little fish was attracted to the sound of a waterfall, and he soon found himself falling into a pond where he met two large fish. The three of them became a family and enjoyed the pond for years until the little fish noticed that he could no longer swim like he used to. He found himself longing for the freedom of the silver stream from which he had come and, eventually, he made his way back to it.
After I finished the story, I called Sister Jenny and awkwardly explained how I had impulsively written this strange fish tale, and wanted Andy to have it. Since my children were sick that day, Sister Jenny came by my house to pick up a copy of the story, and she and my friend and fellow catechist, Tammy, took the story to Andy’s house and read it to him with his family gathered around him.
When she returned, Tammy called to ask if I had ever been to Andy’s home. I hadn’t. She then asked if anyone had ever described anything about the house to me. I found that a strange question and answered, “No, of course not. Why?” Tammy explained that when she and Jenny had arrived at Andy’s house, they found him in a hospital bed. Over his head was a painting of a beautiful stream, and on either side of the bed were fish tanks. Later that evening, Andy’s father called to say that he had been reading a book, “Meditations on Waterfalls. “ “It’s all connected,” he said in a voice filled with wonder and awe; “Everything’s connected.”
A few weeks later, Sister Jenny read “The Fish from the Silver Stream” at Andy’s funeral. Many mourners took copies of the story home with them; and in the years since then, the story has flowed far and wide. It has been used to encourage families coping with the terminal illness or loss of a child, and has been read to children suffering through the loss of a loved one.
Although I wrote “The Fish from the Silver Stream,”I always think of it as Andy’s story. Like most sacred stories, it contains bad things – disease, suffering, loss and grief. But like all sacred stories, Andy’s story points us to the mysterious, invisible presence of God, from whom all good things flow, and whose Spirit connects us all, whether we are healthy or sick, old or young, awake or asleep.
Readers interested in obtaining a copy of “The Fish from the Silver Stream” should contact columnist Karen Muensterman at kmuensterman@evdio.org.
