HOW THEY LEFT US KNOW

We had only been aware for 2 months of Mom’s breast cancer, which had metastasized throughout her body by the time she let on that she thought she had a problem.  On the weekend when she left us, she had asked Dad to call the ambulance, as she couldn’t’ get out of bed to get to the bathroom. 

By Monday she was fading fast.  I had decided to go to work, reasoning I can wait for a phone call anywhere.  My wife called early in the afternoon and told me Dad had called and told us that Mom had died.  I called him from work, and he told me he had been to the hospital just before noon and found her disconnected from much of the equipment.  The staff told him nothing, having been told be their doctor that he was a heart patient and to tell him nothing. 

He went back home and was sitting in his recliner, not really thinking of anything in particular, and he heard her voice call his name.  Five minutes later the hospital called to tell him she was gone.  I told him that when she was passing through the doorway that separates this world from the next she turned around to say goodbye to him.

I didn’t know, but 2 years later when Dad died he would let me know that he made it to the other side as well.  Dad had been going downhill from congestive heart failure from October to July, when he died.  My wife was pregnant the entire time with our youngest son.  Dad got to see Scott when he was 2 weeks old.  Two weeks later we had him baptized, and the day after Dad was put on the critical list and the day after that he died. I firmly believe Dad lived to see his third grandchild baptized to God’s care and love.  I also believe that when he baptism was complete, he felt a gentle tap on the shoulder  and was told that he didn’t’ have to hold on any longer, that his race on earth could now be completed.

But I digress form my story.  The day he died I had to go in early to work to get our pilot machine started.  As I sat in the kitchen getting my lunch organized, I saw the shadows in the kitchen move very distinctly.  No vehicle had passed outside.  I got to work at 6 and  a half hour later my brother called and told me Dad had died. 

When we got to the funeral home later that day, I asked the F.D. what time was on Dad’s death certificate.  He told me 6AM.  I told him I thought it was a little before that.