Chai Brady
Prof Patricia Casey A well-known psychiatrist has opened up about how her Catholic faith has helped her in coming to terms with the tragic loss of her son from cancer.
Prof. Patricia Casey’s son Gavin died in 2017 from spinal cancer when he was aged in his mid-20s. Speaking on RTÉ Radio at the weekend, she said she found it “immensely helpful” for her spiritually when he received the Sacrament of the Sick as he neared the end of his life.
Prof. Casey [pictured] revealed in an interview with her husband John broadcast over the weekend on RTÉ’s Sunday with Miriam that her Faith had been tested when Gavin was first diagnosed with cancer when he was five. However, spea-king of the cancer that would eventually take his life, she said “surprisingly it didn’t test my faith. When Gavin was ill the first time around it tested it much more, I can’t explain it because I anticipated that it would,” Prof. Casey said.
She recalled how she had been at the Edinburgh festival with her family when Gavin developed a limp and returned to Dublin as it became more painful. She received a call with the news of his diagnosis.
“I sat outside the shop [in Edinburgh] and I must have looked very pale because – I’ll always remember this – a young man walking along with a bottle of water and a burger in his hand, said: ‘Are you alright?’ and I said ‘no I’m not, I’ve just heard my son has cancer’ and he said ‘I’ll call a cab for you’.
“And he did and then he said to me: ‘God bless you, I’ll pray for you’, and he walked away, I’ll always remember that,” she said, “it was very kind.”
The chance a person will get two cancers independent of each other is 8%, according to Prof. Casey, who had some hope he would recover but knew the prognosis was not good.
Sacraments
Speaking of when Gavin received the last sacraments, she said a priest friend, Fr Gerard Casey, who is based in Doneraile, Co. Cork, wanted to visit him in St Vincent’s Hospital. Fr Casey married Dr Casey and her husband John and was at the naming ceremony of their two adopted children, Gavin and James.
When the issue of the sacraments came up, Prof. Casey recalled: “I said fine but I’m not sure about the last sacraments or not, because Gavin is an agnostic, he wasn’t an atheist he was an agnostic, but Gavin was unconscious in bed and I though well I don’t know if heaven exists or not, I don’t know, but we’ve done the best we can for Gavin with medicines.
“Maybe – and the decision was mine because John isn’t a believer – I said I want to do the best I can for Gavin spiritually…Gavin himself wouldn’t have minded, he’d have said ‘whatever I don’t care’, so I thought let’s do it so.
“Fr Casey did, and as he put the oils on his forehead, he said to me Jesus touched Gavin now, he will be with Jesus very shortly and that actually was amazingly helpful to me personally,” she said.
Her husband John, who described himself as having no religious faith, said he likes going to churches to think about Gavin.
He said he finds that immensely comforting.