Catholic sacrament in demand

Mary Ellen Segraves could sense the fear in her ailing mother Ceil’s eyes the day after her knee surgery. But when Rev. Yaroslav Mendyuk approached her hospital bed to offer the sacrament of the sick, Segraves saw her mother light up. Following the priest’s lead, Ceil Segraves crossed herself with a frail hand taped with tubes and closed her eyes as Mendyuk anointed her forehead and hands with oil and recited the blessing from his prayer book. Her children then surrounded her and joined hands with the priest to recite the Lord’s Prayer. “It gives you confidence,” said Segraves, 84, parishioner at St. Viator Catholic Church in Old Irving Park after receiving the sacrament. “It gives you a different prayer-a prayer received. You feel calm.”