When we left Omaha, Nebraska to come to Winona for a week- long visit, little did we know we’d end up staying another week so we could attend my father’s funeral. Dad came home from the hospital to start his hospice care on the same Tuesday we got into town. We helped set up the living room to accommodate his hospital bed, oxygen, and other things we’d need to keep him comfortable. He was excited to get home and was in pretty good spirits in spite of it all. Since he wasn’t able to get much sleep at the hospital, he was pretty exhausted that first day and so he slept all afternoon and evening. It came time for the rest of us to go to bed and he was still sleeping so we decided not to wake him up but just let him sleep. I was lying on the couch right next to his bed so I figured if he needed anything, I’d hear him. Sure enough about 1am, he woke up wide awake. Then he said to me, ‘Hey, are you sleeping over there?’ I wasn’t anymore. Dad was awake for several hours and I sat with him to keep him company. He wanted to watch a western movie on TV but couldn’t since that channel apparently didn’t play 24 hours. So we watched an online church service from a nearby WELS church in Bangor, WI. Since Dad could no longer attend services, he’d started listening to them online. That pastor even said a prayer for him and he was happy to hear it. We talked and talked, and about 4am, he told me to open the curtains so we can watch the sunrise. (I’m sure he’d lost all track of time and didn’t realize it would be a few more hours before we’d even see that.) After some time he fell asleep and so I went back to my place on the couch and got some much needed rest too. Around 7am he called me again, ‘Hey, are you awake over there?’ I woke up to see what he was going to need. He told me I need to close the curtains so I could sleep and he didn’t want the sun to get in my eyes! Those were precious last hours with my dad that I’ll treasure always. He was on a steady decline the rest of the week and thankfully a team of angels came swooping in early on Sunday morning, October 24th, and relieved both him and us from his further suffering. He had church in heaven that morning.
It was a crazy time of planning arrangements and a whirlwind week with basically two funeral services and finally his burial at his old church in Monroe, Michigan last Thursday. The whole family and so many friends came together to celebrate Dad’s Homecoming.
The strife is o’er, the battle done;
The victory of life is won;
The song of triumph has begun: Alleluia!
We left Winona yesterday and got back on the road again. It’s a huge relief to us knowing that Dad’s health is not the big looming question mark it once was and we no longer worry about what is happening with him while we’re running around the country hither and yon . We are bobtailing (trucker talk for not pulling a trailer) all the way to Los Angeles this week and we’ll be stopping at my brother’s house in Las Vegas tomorrow night for what we hope is a ‘Fire Harry Reid’ party while watching the election returns. From there we pick up that ‘Phantom of the Opera’ trailer in LA and take it up to New York. So we’re back in the saddle again…
It was a crazy time of planning arrangements and a whirlwind week with basically two funeral services and finally his burial at his old church in Monroe, Michigan last Thursday. The whole family and so many friends came together to celebrate Dad’s Homecoming.
The strife is o’er, the battle done;
The victory of life is won;
The song of triumph has begun: Alleluia!
We left Winona yesterday and got back on the road again. It’s a huge relief to us knowing that Dad’s health is not the big looming question mark it once was and we no longer worry about what is happening with him while we’re running around the country hither and yon . We are bobtailing (trucker talk for not pulling a trailer) all the way to Los Angeles this week and we’ll be stopping at my brother’s house in Las Vegas tomorrow night for what we hope is a ‘Fire Harry Reid’ party while watching the election returns. From there we pick up that ‘Phantom of the Opera’ trailer in LA and take it up to New York. So we’re back in the saddle again…