Any Oasis Will Do

Setting: A memorial service, held on Sorber Mountain, Noxen, Pennsylvania. It is a brilliant October day. About 100 people are gathered under a huge white tent stretched above the top of a long, grass-covered hill. The view extends across the distant mountains for miles, and overhead a large hawk flies in great, lazy circles. The deceased man's daughter is speaking to his family, friends, and business associates.

Dad was fortunate to enjoy 78 years of relatively good health. In his last few years he found this mountain retreat to be a tougher climb than when he was younger, and reluctantly he began to leave the hunting to the younger guys. There was a comfortable fireplace inside the cabin, the Penn State game on an autumn Saturday, and a well-equipped kitchen where he could create the high-sodium, cholesterol-loaded, who-cares-how-many-calories recipes that pleased him so much to prepare. After Mom died, he sometimes spoke of moving up here completely. Sitting on the deck with a whiskey and water, looking down on the meadow to watch the deer feed in the evening, or gazing across the miles of brilliant, picture-postcard land, where the mountains meet the open sky … he once said this is the place where he felt close to God. He didn't get up here more than a few times over the last spring and summer, since his bouts with congestive heart failure became more frequent and he had a change of address to Wilkes-Barre General Hospital.

At the hospital, he also found God in the water fountain located so very conveniently opposite his room. Told by his doctors to limit fluids, and with no water pitcher allowed at the bedside, all he thought about, of course, was water; how to …