Michelle here.
Loma Linda, California, is not quite the same for Adventists as Salt Lake City is for Mormons — more important meccas of Adventism can be found in the Midwest and East Coast — but it is predominantly an Adventist city. I spent some time there over a decade ago and was amused that there was postal delivery on Sunday but not Saturday.
"The city is best known for Loma Linda University Medical Center, where in 1984 doctors performed the world’s first infant cross-species heart transplant: ‘Baby Fae’ was given the heart of a baboon.
"Less known is that the university and medical center are run by Adventists. Loma Linda, home to at least 7,000 Adventists, one of the largest concentrations in the world, has been governed exclusively by church members since it incorporated more than three decades ago.
"Adventism, a conservative Christian denomination, and the church’s holistic devotion to people’s health and spiritual well-being dominate daily life in Loma Linda, where biblical creationism and cutting-edge medicine exist side by side.
"The city has a Ronald McDonald House to shelter the families of ailing children — but no Golden Arches. Most Adventists are vegetarian."
(Nod to Bill Cork for the link.)
Late in 2004, when my father was dying of terminal illness, we managed to have him admitted to the hospice nursing unit of Loma Linda’s Veterans Administration Hospital. (San Diego’s VA did not have any openings.) Despite the difficulties for us in visiting him, we were pleased for him that he could be at the Loma Linda VA because that meant he would have access to Adventist chaplains. The Loma Linda VA had three chaplains, two Adventist and a Catholic priest.
Although early in his stay at the VA Dad did get one visit from the Adventist chaplain and another visit from an Adventist pastor who was a friend of the family, as the end approached the chaplain who responded to my calls for chaplain’s visits was the priest. (I did not request him; I only requested whoever was available.) At the end, it was the priest who visited Dad just before he died and who prayed with us afterwards. I never met either of the Adventist chaplains.
Which goes to show that even in an "Adventist city" I guess it is possible for Adventists to be prepared for death by a Catholic priest.
