Pastoral Care

Pennsylvania Correctional Institution- Stanga, PA. Death Row.

There was nothing warm or inviting about this place....I would have rather not have been here, but I couldn't get Deacon Larry Weatherford to come in my place...No, if I knew right...He was probably wallowing in bed with my ex-wife right now...enjoying her lusicious breasts, feeling her incredible hips, kissing and licking on her beautiful chocolate brown skin....kissing those luscious lips....ohhh, I -I can't bear to think of it...Just the thought of it makes my blood boil...but there was nothing I could do about it...I messed up....I cheated on her...More times than she probably knew.....with half the women on the choir, and the usherettes and some of the young ladies in the sunshine club....

That was the old me....I am after all the Pastor of a pretty large church and that kind of behavior was and is unseemly....the real irony of all of this is that my ex wife....Victoria Jenkins Struthers Weatherford was probably the finest woman in that church....and I didn't realize it until after she was gone, with another man...my head deacon...Larry Weatherford.

Funny , that I'd think of Victoria now in this dreary place...a Prison.....and on death row...Where today I am to watch the state of Pennsylvania put to death a man, a man who murdered his own mother and several young women in the city of Philadelphia. A man captured by my church member and friend, Kevin Morris....I couldn't even get him to come here to witness this. Why this man had asked for me to be with him as he took his last breath was beyond me...Hell, he didn't even go to my church!

I'm Reverend John Struthers of Gesthenamie Baptist Church, Philadelphia PA. I drove up here in the boondocks to be with this man and witness his execution because he asked for me...It rained like cats and dogs all the way up here....and it is eerily cold in this unit.

A big beefy guard motioned for me to come with him....I was searched and my cell phone and wallet and other personal effects were put in a drab brown plastic tray. My name was written with a magic marker on a label and placed on the tray.

Then I followed the guard through three electrically controlled doors and down the hallway. The entire brick hallway that housed the condemned men was painted all white....It was strangely very quiet....Strange for a prison....but this was Death row. We walked to a cell at end of the hall.

The door was opened and there he sat...Anthony Breezely. He didn't look a day over 21 or 22...

He looked like anything but a mass killer...but then...what does a mass killer look like?

"Pastor Struthers" he said as he stood up and reached his handcuffed hand toward me...

"Yes?" I said.

"Guess you don't remember me huh? and I'm guessing you don't know why I asked you to be here do you ?" he said, smiling.

"Well no son, I don't." I said.

"You baptized me and my mom, years ago..." he said.

"I-I-I did?? Ohhhhh, yeah....now I remember." I said.

"No you don't." he said.

"You're right...I don't." I said.

"We were two out of maybe 25 people you baptized that sunday...It was the sunday after Easter...I remember it well...I was 12 years old." he said.

"Wow....12 years old...How old are you now?" I asked.

'Twenty three." he said.

"Well...Well...you- you certainly have grown into a...er uh, fine young man, fine looking young fella." I said.

"A fine young man that killed seven people and is about to be killed by the state of Pennsylvania in retaliation for what I did." he said.

"Well son...you shouldn't look at it that way. uh, er..." I said.

"No other way to look at it...it is what it is..." he said.

"So what do you want with me?" I asked.

" I want you to be with me when I go to meet Jesus." he said.

"Son, I can't be in the room with you.." I said.

"I know....but I know you'll be behind that glass, watching me...you'll be with me." He said...

''Well okay...I guess you need one friendly face , someone from where you come from son." I said.

"Thank You Pastor."

Just then another guard, a thin white man walked into the cell.....

"Breezely, it's time for your last meal...what will you have?" he asked.

"I'm not here to eat...I'm here to die." said Anthony with that false bravado that young men so often have.

"Son, get yourself somethin to eat...you don't wanna leave here on an empty stomach...It's the last thing anybody is gonna do for you....Get yourself some food boy." I said.

"Well uh okay....Can I have a New York Strip Steak, with a Baked Potato with butter on it , a salad with french dressing and a Coke?" he asked.

"That's what you want? Okay...we'll have it here for you." said the guard and he walked away.

I signaled the other guard to come and get me...

"Son...I'll be returning when it's time." I said.

"Thank you Pastor." he said.

As I walked out to the waiting room, I felt this cold sense of dread......I saw a young black woman

sitting in the lobby...I recognized her... She worked at the high school near my church in Philly..

Her name was Rita Gordon...an attractive and shapely woman who wore her hair in a bun and horn rimmed glasses. Her curves had curves..You couldn't ignore her body or her tight skirts.

...if only she would have let her hair down and have lost the glasses...ummmmph...ummmph! I thought.

"Pastor Struthers, what are you doing here?" she asked.

"He requested that I be here....See, I baptized him years ago...before he went bad.....He wanted me to be with him in the end......What are you doing here?" I asked.

"I taught him in high school....He murdered my friend, Alma Sanders....I'm all she had...Her people are down south. I had to come here to see him get the justice he deserves....I'm here for Alma." she said.

"Oh, I see...Where you stayin at?" I asked....

"Probably the same place you stayin at Pastor...There isn't but one motel in this entire town and one diner." she said ,halfway managing a smile.

"Want some dinner? We don't have to be back here until 10:00 pm." I said.

"Why thank you Pastor." she said...

Lawwd have mercy, here a young man was about to die and he wanted me to be a witness to it and all I could think about was the hips on this woman...Lawd help me!.

(To Be Continued......)