Tuesday, November 11, 2008

My father has moved on to a better place

The day that we all knew would come, arrived on November 10th, 2008. My father passed away while he was living here in my home. He would ask occasionally why he could not die. He was mostly bed ridden for the past several months and felt as though he was a big burden and of no use to anyone. All of my family members told him that he still had work to do on the earth and that the Lord would not take him until that was written. We knew that he had been working on his life history for a few months and that possibly he was being spared because it was not finished. He then pursued the task of speaking into a recorder or having someone type as he dictated his history. Last week he began to show signs of pneumonia and his appetite was very poor. I asked him if he wanted to see if the Dr. would give him an antibiotic and he said,"No".
I knew that he would not last long with the chest congestion he was having. With each passing day, his color looked a little more pale and he ate less and less. By Monday morning, I could tell that his time was short on this earth.
I called Barbara, Deanna and Doug to tell them that they may want to come over to see dad. My mother was already here with dad. Barb and Deanna got here about 1pm and spent the day talking and typing more of his history as he dictated it to them. He seemed to have rallied a bit and I apoligized to them for having them drop everything and come. But, they were glad to have come and enjoyed helping dad with his history. Deanna was hungry and dad told her to go eat supper. She had Barb come in to sit with dad. As Barb sat with him around 5:55 she asked him if he had anything else to say and he said, "I'm............done." And he closed his eyes and slowed his breathing. Barb came running out of the room saying that he was going. We could not believe it because he was just talking to Deanna 5 minutes before. As we entered the room it was obvious that he was indeed going. We all said goodbye and Pete and a neighbor gave him a blessing to release him. He passed peacefully and quietly. We could not have been blessed more with that release. Mom is doing fine and we will plan on a funeral Saturday at 1pm in Panguitch.