Here’s a sad story: A Florida woman was killed as she was leaving Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.
Theresa Paglierani’s life revolved around her family and her church, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church, friends say.
She had stopped at the church to pray Monday when she was struck by a hit-and-run driver in the parking lot about 2 p.m., Florida Highway Patrol troopers said. She died later at Halifax Medical Center in Daytona Beach.
The 72-year-old woman lived with her daughter, son-in-law and two grandchildren in Palm Coast, a family friend, Kathleen West, said at the scene Monday. The church was a large part of their lives, West said.
The last thing Paglierani did was visit the church, she said.
“She was in adoration,” a Catholic religious act acknowledging God’s supreme perfection and dominion, West said. “You sit there with Jesus.”
According to the story, she was originally a Boston native and a Red Sox fan. It’s apparently a hit-and-run. Without making light of the tragedy, I would seriously say that if you have to go, the only better way would be if you came right out of confession first. But then, this sounds like the way she lived her life.
May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. And may the person who hit her find remorse and seek to make amends and take responsibility, and may they too receive mercy.
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Not to trivialize Theresa’s passing in any way (I pray that the Lord scooped her up immediately, just as it appears) but I can’t count the times I’ve walked from the Adoration Chapel into stormy weather and found comfort in the fact of where I’d just been. (I’m a wimpy driver.) Each time it has occurred to me that if I’m going to die, what better circumstances are there? The only one that beat this in potential manner of death, for me, was the day I approached a church that had a HUGE carving of the Sacred Heart image on its facade. First I thought “Goodness, what if that sculpture ever FELL?” Then I realized that being crushed by the Sacred Heart would be a most appropriate way to leave this earth.
Well, we all have to leave this earth sooner or later, and even though this dear lady was killed by a hit-and-run driver, she had just left the invisible Presence of Our Lord, and went straight to His Presence in Heaven (hopefully). I feel sad for her family to lose their Mom in such a shocking way, and hope that when they are able to get past this, they can find comfort in her life-long devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. I am sure that they will have a powerful advocated in heaven. prayers going up for all of them.