Page 162 "...blinded by the miniature plastic statue of Christ..."

A statue of Jesus baring the Sacred Heart.

From page 162 of the book:  "...He'd knelt before her, blinded by the miniature plastic statue of Christ above her bed's headboard. It was a robed Christ, standing with one foot protruding from His gown, baring the sacred heart."

Photos courtesy of Deborah Zipoli.

This particular statue, made of plaster, is actually a few inches above a foot high.  My father picked it up unpainted in 1961, shortly after my folks moved us into their first own house, on Home Avenue, in Meriden, Conn.  My father had a little workshop downstairs in the cellar where he would make wooden figures of characters from the Flintstones or Mickey Mouse, out of some kind of pressed board (using a jigsaw).  He painted this statue and it's been in Mom & Dad's household ever since.

I could think of no better image from my past than this statue as a balance to what Joseph Sarjevo sees upon entering the hospital room.  Whose heart is not sacred?