My Dad passed away December 23, 2010 at 3:56 in the morning.
Dad had an iliac aneurysm rupture on December 7th. It was remarkable, if not miraculous, that he lived long enough for the ambulance to get to the house, beside the 25 mile trip to the hospital, and a helicopter ride to Rochester. The surgeon repaired the ruptured aneurysm, as well as an abdominal aortic aneurysm we had known about for some time. I raced home and was so relieved; his recovery was amazing. Six days later he was discharged to a nursing home to get stronger before returning home. My sister-in-law is a nurse there, and we were happy to have him closer to home with family keeping an eye on him.
After being transferred, Dad felt worse. Despite being very independent and as active as possible, he had multiple health problems for years - bad heart, bad lungs, constant pain from shingles over 2 years ago. On the morning of the 21st, he decided he was going to "cross Jordan today." I hurried back across the state again, afraid I wouldn't make it in time, but I did. In fact we were able to spend another day and a half with him. He talked, joked, prayed, slept. He told us, "Never give up on God." He was lucid most of the time, not always. He said his pain was gone, and he was breathing better than he had in years. Thursday morning the breaths just started coming farther apart. We were with him when he went home.
Dad had an iliac aneurysm rupture on December 7th. It was remarkable, if not miraculous, that he lived long enough for the ambulance to get to the house, beside the 25 mile trip to the hospital, and a helicopter ride to Rochester. The surgeon repaired the ruptured aneurysm, as well as an abdominal aortic aneurysm we had known about for some time. I raced home and was so relieved; his recovery was amazing. Six days later he was discharged to a nursing home to get stronger before returning home. My sister-in-law is a nurse there, and we were happy to have him closer to home with family keeping an eye on him.
After being transferred, Dad felt worse. Despite being very independent and as active as possible, he had multiple health problems for years - bad heart, bad lungs, constant pain from shingles over 2 years ago. On the morning of the 21st, he decided he was going to "cross Jordan today." I hurried back across the state again, afraid I wouldn't make it in time, but I did. In fact we were able to spend another day and a half with him. He talked, joked, prayed, slept. He told us, "Never give up on God." He was lucid most of the time, not always. He said his pain was gone, and he was breathing better than he had in years. Thursday morning the breaths just started coming farther apart. We were with him when he went home.
I have a lot of stories about things that happened in those last few days that demonstrated God's faithfulness and love, to Dad and to the rest of us. But they're too hard to go into right now, and some of them sound downright crazy. I will settle for saying a couple things I know for sure. I had a wonderful Dad. He always spent time with us, played with us, was interested in our lives, told us he loved us. Now he is home. I miss him so much, but I will see him again.
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