The following story was recently told to me by a co-worker friend of mine:
Said friend is sitting in church, during the “sermonizing” portion of the evening line-up (it was a Wednesday night service). A woman near the front begins to cough. And cough. And cough. And then the coughing turned more into a choking sort of scenario, and finally erupted into the dreaded projectile vomiting. What happened next? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. The pastor did not so much as bat an eye, and kept right on preaching. A woman behind her offered up some Kleenex (which is a bit like urinating on a forest fire if you ask me) and a guy sitting near my friend leaned over and said “You don’t see THAT every day.” But otherwise, nothing.
So my question is this: should a worship service continue unabated when something like this occurs? It’s not like she vomited politely into her purse and no one knew it happened. My friend was all the way in the back and he knew it happened. She clearly could have used some assistance. What’s the etiquette here?
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6 comments:
I appreciate the guy not calling her out and making her feel worse for something she probably couldn't help. But she should be punched in the neck anyways.
Mom recommended calling for a moment of "silent meditation" for the congregation while others helped the poor woman.
If I hurled in church, I couldn't go back. I'd have to transfer membership.
The decent thing to do is excuse yourself while coughing and coughing and coughing. Our church usually sends in the bouncers if you go making a scene like that.
I guess the good reverend could've pointed to the back corner of the sancutary and excitedly asked, "Is that fire!?" When everyone turns to look, have the bouncers drag out the offending party.
I agree with the first part of Kyle's comment. That lady should have excused herself soon enough to have avoided the issue alltogether. However, once it was too late to do so, she should have used offering envelopes as air-sickness bags. Then she could have placed them in the offering plate and they would have been removed descretely. Wouldn't THAT surprise the money counters?
Squid says, "I threw up one time in 2nd grade, all over the girl sitting in front of me (and her math book). It happened so fast, I couldn't prevent it. I then threw up all the way down the hall to the bathroom where I promptly stopped. When I returned, the whole class was outside and my friend asked me to switch math books with her.
It was embarrassing, but I got over it.
She'll get over it too.
Oh yeah. By the way, since she didn't leave, the preacher should've asked everyone to go outside to finish the sermon. And someone could've helped her to the bathroom."
Squid tells stories like this while talking to me too. It's maddening.
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