Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: HOME (02/07/19)
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TITLE: Peaceful Passings | Previous Challenge Entry
By C D Swanson
02/10/19 -
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The surgeon’s mouth was moving…but all I could see was my father’s blood soaked through on his scrubs.
It felt like someone sliced my heart open as I crumbled to the ground, while everything around me moved in slow motion. It was as they say, “surreal.”
After that horrific scene, we mourned together as families often do. It was afterwards that I realized it was a perfect way to pass away. A gift from God!
How did I reach this conclusion?
Because we had a chance to say goodbye, and we all said, “I love you.” My dad said, “I love you and I will see you soon.” He then took my mom’s hand, “Marie, I love you and I’ve loved you from the moment I set eyes on you 53 years ago.” Those were the last words my family heard from my loving father, before they wheeled him into the “death suite.”
We prayed and waited…and now you all know the rest of the story.
So, how did I come to the conclusion of what a “perfect way to die?”
My dad never knew what hit him. He was confident he’d see us again, was put under general anesthesia, but woke up in Jesus arms. It doesn’t get any better than that folks!
So that sustained me throughout the horrific days without him.
Fast forward seventeen years later to my Mom’s story.
Mom was blessed in so many ways. She was hospitalized three times in her life, each time for a happy occasion, giving birth.
God was good to her throughout the years. Other than diabetes, which she got in her seventies, high blood pressure, and arthritis, she truly was blessed in the health department.
She was a loving wife, mother, grandmother and person overall, who had great faith, like my dad, and a joy for life.
Then it happened, she was told she needed a heart valve replacement. She recoiled and was emphatic about not wanting it done because of what happened to Dad. She lived with it for ten years, but then eventually it took its toll.
Seemingly overnight she showed all the signs of heart failure. She retained water, and couldn’t walk and was having difficulty breathing. She was told she had to go to the hospital. Reluctantly she went, but truly believed she’d return home soon.
The day before my sixtieth birthday Mom was admitted. It was the first time since my birth. She got worse overnight, by early morning, on my birthday, there was nothing more to do.
All of my siblings were there, and grandchildren. My brother was with Mom when he heard Dad’s voice, “Marie, it’s going to be okay.” My brother thought he was hearing things until he heard it again, “Marie, it’s going to be okay honey.” My mother opened her eyes wide and smiled, a little while later she passed away. Mom believed she’d return “home” and she did!
Once again, I realized what a blessing that was from God. Mom never wanted to be in a hospital, and never was other than giving birth to her three children. So sixty years of not being in a hospital is quite a gift, is it not?
However, the biggest blessing of all for me is, God called her home on my birthday, which I consider the best present of all.
So many reasons to be joyful: Dad came to show her the way home; Mom was granted her prayers of never having to be hospitalized for sixty years; Mom gave birth to me, delivered me, and gave me life; The LORD delivered Mom, and gave her eternal life.
What a birthday present!
I pray when it’s time to be called home, that my experience will be as peaceful as their passing from this world into Paradise.
What a joyful reunion it will be. Amen!
The LORD never gives us more than we can handle, and our burdens are not ours to bear alone. He is with us always, even until the end of time…
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