Nothing Serious

My father survived my mother by thirty-four days. Both of them passed away in January and February of 2005. Within days of my mother’s funeral, following her very sudden and unexpected death at home, he was admitted to hospital for what appeared to be a respiratory ailment that in the words of the big city resident physician was “not life threatening”. It soon became apparent to my sister, Lozanne and myself that whatever was wrong was not getting any better. I had conversations with my very coherent eighty-seven year old father that led me to believe that he was actually debating with himself whether to die or to continue living. I did not know until the vigil that became those thirty-four long days that at a certain age, or perhaps at any age I sometimes wonder, you can simply will yourself to leave this world and join those in the next.

We watched as his health went from bad to worse despite the fact that he lived through rather major bowel surgery to repair a tear actually discovered in a chest x-ray. Even ten days before his passing, the young resident in charge of his care, assured us that he would recover. At that point I respectfully informed the doctor that he was indeed wrong, a fact which he admitted several days later when my father lapsed into a coma. Dad had simply willfully laid down long enough that his aged body just started to shut down. In effect, he died of nothing serious.

Several days before his death, we witnessed something that I will never forget. Apparently while in a continuous unconscious state, my father suddenly opened his eyes, smiled and reached out with both hands to someone or something at the foot of his bed. Even as we asked him who or what he saw, he was obviously in a comatose state and did not respond. There was such peace and joy in his smile and gesture that I think of the sight often. Who or what did he see? To whom did he so clearly smile and gesture? I will never be certain, but I now firmly believe that he saw an angel there to escort him to heaven or, dare I hope, that Jesus Himself appeared at the end of that bed and eased his difficult crossing over. The words of John 14: 2-4 lead me to ponder that promise. Jesus assures us that He will “come again and receive you to Myself”.

2 “In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.

3 “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.

4 ¶ “And where I go you know, and the way you know.”

I find such comfort in the words of Jesus. My father lived by Christian precepts all of his life and became a believing and professing Christian in the last few weeks of his life. I will never know for sure who he saw at the foot of his hospital bed, but my faith and personal experience lead me to believe that the promise of Jesus in John 14: 3 was fulfilled before my very eyes.

(Comments, corrections, suggestions or rebuttals are welcome. My email link is contained in “About me: view my complete profile” to the right of this page or use the comment section below which requires that you have a Google account. All are welcome to follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/markthall)