VALE NEIL YEAMAN

                                    INJURY AT THE HEALING CHURCH’S DOOR

The following are a few (condensed) exchanges mainly between Stuart and me (and Fergie) as we tried to make sense of the news that our little sister Catriona’s husband, Neil, had had a heart attack outside St Fillan’s Church, Houston (Scotland) on Sunday 18^th September. 

Vale James Neil Yeaman who died on Thursday 22^nd September 2022 aged 66.

            Funeral Thursday 6^th October 2022.

Neil & Catriona

Stuart: Yes, Neil fell when he had the attack, and received a head injury. There is great concern about bleeding on the brain. His heart was treated in an operation involving a stent. It is his brain that is greatly worrying now. It’s a dangerous crisis. He was fine yesterday and at a big juniors match with Hamish [his son who was] playing for the Bankies against the Spartans at Holm Park… We had a wee dinner at our place in a couple of weeks ago. He had regular tests for this’n’that last week and was told he was in good shape…

Neil: I take it that Neil was walking home from his wee local in Houston? It’s only a few minutes walk from his house.

Stuart: Yes, a couple of pints and a five-minute stroll from the Riverside (Crosslee). Never overdoes it. Sensible stuff… Neil had been in Houston after the Bankies match, after five o’clock and had a pint at the Houston Inn, in the village. He was asked (by phone, I’m not clear) if he wanted a lift home, but it was cheerfully agreed “a walk would do him good…”
He had the attack just outside the chapel, St Fillan’s, near the junction leaving the village, not far from home. He was found lying on the pavement, a man in a pink jumper (unless I misheard — I didn’t press for details, but Catriona, hearing a man had been found, asked about the colour of his pullover and knew it was Neil. Had she been worried about his return?)
Neil was helped by passers-by, one of them a nurse applying CPR. He was taken to the Royal Alexandra in Paisley and then to the Golden Jubilee…
More clearly: Neil had a heart operation yesterday which included the insertion (if that’s the term) of a stent. He is in a drug-induced coma to assist recovery from brain injury sustained by, and/or as a result of, the fall.

Neil: Hopefully Neil will pull through this without any permanent damage. I was Google-earthing St Fillan’s in Houston. I used to pass it every morning as I ran from Catriona’s up to the Fox & Hounds where I’d turn right, and then run across and down through the park and all the way back to Cat’s house. I miss my wee sis!

Stuart: Yeh! I had no idea (or maybe forgotten) you stayed there, but I like to give key points of reference in a narrative to assist visualisation of the character of an area. St Fillan has so much resonance in history (his armbone, as a relic, led the troops at Bannockburn, says Tranter), plus his Highland distinction in Celtic Christianity, and to me a little irony in this context of injury at the healing church’s door, I instinctively had to include it. You’ve given the reference life.

Neil: Is Tranter’s arm bone reference in one of the Bruce trilogy? I must revisit Tranter… Yes, it was the “little irony”, as you say, “injury at the healing church’s door” that piqued my interest. Everything has meaning (even if we have to make up its meaning!). Sorry, we shouldn’t be making up meaning but only observe what meaning is already there. I believe in a sovereign God, which is a comfort to me. As the old hymn goes,

“God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform

He plants his footsteps in the sea, And rides upon the storm.

Deep in unfathomable mines Of never failing skill;

He treasures up his bright designs, And works His sovereign will.

Ye fearful saints fresh courage take, The clouds ye so much dread

Are big with mercy, and shall break In blessings on your head.” (William Cowper)

Stuart: Yes — “injury at the healing church’s door” — I think the flow of words, if allowed to go without interference from oneself can shake the truth out of a tree. Or at best be assembled from elsewhere. And yes, the Dewars of St Fillan have a strong, if eccentric, role in the Bruce trilogy.
 

Neil: I was doing the Wikipedia version of Fillan’s story. Fascinating stuff! Here’re a couple of quotes also mentioning the Houston connection:

“Fillan is the patron saint of the mentally ill. In Strathfillan are the ruins of Saint Fillan’s chapel, and hard by is the Holy Pool, in which the insane were, as late as the 19th century, bathed to obtain a cure by the saint’s intercession. Scott refers to it in Marmion (Cant. I. xxix).”
“Near the ruins of the old church, situated near Houston, is a stone called Fillan’s Seat, and a spring called Fillan’s Well existed there until it was filled up, as a remnant of superstition, by a parish minister in the eighteenth century.”
Aye, fascinating stuff indeed. Makes me want to visit Houston again to wander around… Yes, your headline, “Injury at the Healing Church’s Door” does need a (true) story to follow. Let’s hope Neil is healed both body and soul and recovers with his mind fully intact.

St Fillan's, Main St, Houston, Renfrewshire

Stuart: Marmion is my favourite Scott poem — his too. He says it practically wrote itself as he galloped through the spray on the shore at Portobello. But, Fillan…
Sung to the billows’ sound;
Thence to Saint Fillan's blessed well, Whose springs can frenzied dreams dispel,
And the crazed brain restore:
Saint Mary grant that cave or spring Could back to peace my bosom bring,
Or bid it throb no more!”

Neil: I must dig out Scott’s Marmion… Aye, Saint Fillan. I saw that Killin was named for him, and other places around Scotland and Ireland. We don’t pray to saints, but there must be more to this “little irony” than meets the naked eye. We call nurses angels because their work resembles that of the spirit beings. God, in His sovereignty, sent an “angel” to assist Neil in his state of demise. If only we could put on special glasses that would enable us to see what’s really going on in all of this. Calvin calls the Bible “spectacles”, i.e., the spectacles of Scripture. I put them on daily. This morning I prayed with tears for Neil’s (total) healing. Elizabeth mentioned this verse to me earlier regarding Neil, “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” James 5:16.

Stuart: I admit, as thirled (try getting that word past predictive censorship) as thirled tho amur to Walter, and esp this A Tale of Flodden Field, I’ve never managed to read the thing in one go. Whit!? No, nae, never. Here, I inadvertently captured an extra line in slicing a bit from canto XXIX. Here’s the whole stanza:
“Lord Marmion then his boon did ask; The Palmer took on him the task,
So he would march with morning tide, To Scottish court to be his guide.
But I have solemn vows to pay, And may not linger by the way,
To fair St. Andrews bound, Within the ocean-cave to pray,
Where good Saint Rule his holy lay, From midnight to the dawn of day,
Sung to the billows’ sound;
Thence to Saint Fillan’s blessed well, Whose springs can frenzied dreams dispel,
And the crazed brain restore:
Saint Mary grant that cave or spring Could back to peace my bosom bring,
Or bid it throb no more!”

James Neil Yeaman

Fergie: [After Stuart had shared with him what we’d written thus far.] Thanks Stuart. Glad to read it. Shared with Mary. Fillan you probably already know is from Scottish Faolan / Irish Faolán.
Faol is one of the older terms for Wolf in both Gaelics. The “an” is a diminutive. So one is typically informed by online searches that Fillan means Little Wolf. Pedantically correct perhaps, but I wonder if in the era of Celtic monks and their adherents the “an” could as well be “heard” as an affectionate suffix. Maybe that familiarity would be better captured by a rendering into English such as “Wolfie” perhaps? I have no-one more clued up than me around to ask😄…

Never heard the name spoken, but approximate pronunciation would be in Scottish something like FOOLan (high oo - as in glue - and with a thick L), and in Irish perhaps more akin to FEELan. 
Here is a link to an Irish online dictionary with the Ulster, Munster, and Connacht pronunciations (audio) of the word Daol (beetle). Faol is in the dictionary but no sound files for it unfortunately. https://www.teanglann.ie/en/fuaim/Daol

Stuart: We all share a depth of concern that keeps running and rerunning through the mind. Our conversation (between Neil and me) seems symptomatic of a desperation for a positive resolution, an intellectual displacement activity, marking time. Yet it is clear, running beneath it, beside it and all around it, is a great regard, liking, respect, a brotherly love for Neil Y we’d never think to articulate, but resonates now. We want him back, whole and sound: Yes, it is midnight in Scotland and it is our hope the new day brings Neil another step back towards us. So much is clear in the darkness of the hour. Thank you all for sharing it.

Elizabeth: [My sister-in-law after receiving a copy thus far.] Hi Neil & Stuart, Thanks for the insightful conversations. I also do tend to rightfully or wrongly look into things, looking for answers and understandings. Midnight in Scotland just now, I hope Catriona is sleeping resting her mind and body. Love, Liz

Neil & Catriona, Fergie,
front Neil & Stuart

Postscript

Neil: It’s so difficult to lose a loved one. We hoped and prayed that God would return Neil to us intact, that he’d awaken Neil from his coma, restored body, mind, and soul. However, it was not to be. I’ve fallen out with God before for less, far, far less. Should we forsake Him now, now that He didn’t do what we wanted Him to? God forbid! As the one who suffered tragic and terrible loss said, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him” (Job 13:15a).

Why should we trust God even when we don’t understand Him or what He is doing? “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Rom. 8:28). And where is He going with “all things”, (yes, and even those really painful things!), as He works them together for our good? “And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.” (Rev. 21:4-5). I know all this, yet I am so like Martha, I needed to keep on being reminded.

“Martha said to Jesus, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise again.’ Martha said to him, ‘I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.’ Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?’ She said to him, ‘Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world” (John 11:21-27).

I wanted my brother-in-law Neil to live, we all did. If only God had come to him when he was in that coma but was still alive. But God had other plans, greater plans – as He works all things together for good. As we look for meaning, we must trust Him alone to give all things meaning. Otherwise, everything will become meaningless to us.