The above line from my favorite Dickens novel describes our life for the last two weeks only ours were in reverse order. It may sound strange to describe a time of illness and death in such a manner. In all honesty, it sounds a bit that way to me as well. Yet, for the last two weeks, that phrase has come to mind many times in our family’s journey.

It all started on October 28, when my beloved awoke before dawn heaving the contents of his stomach, laced with what I knew to be blood. Becky and I cleaned him up, only to have it happen again a couple of hours later.  By then, I knew we had to call the hospice nurse, who arrived a little after nine. After a thorough examination, she pronounced him “in the last stage” and set us up on CTC, their version of ICU. This meant we would have around the clock nursing care for as long as he lived or until he was significantly better.

This was discouraging but uplifting at the same time. While I hated to see Lauren so near the end, I knew he had slipped into a coma and was not hurting.  We also had the benefit of extra help to care for his needs, giving Becky and me a bit of much-needed relief.  An unexpected blessing from this was some precious Christian fellowship with the two ladies who came to serve during that time.

For more about all of this, see http://www.lyndacoats.com/?p=31 written as an e-mail and posted for me during that time. Thank you, Janice!) I‘m sorry it never made it to the blog.

Lauren awoke Thursday morning fully conscious saying “Feed me!” He ate a whole cup of yogurt, drank a nutrition shake and ate a few bites of bean soup. He seemed over the hump and was well enough to graduate from CTC the next morning. This was good.

We had a good weekend, until Sunday morning.  He awoke about 4:00 AM screaming, “No! No!” This worried me a bit as I had always heard that Christians died looking forward to going home. I knew Lauren belonged to the Lord, so why was he fighting death? Or was he? He had not been able to carry on much conversation since the downturn but he managed to tell me that he was ready for heaven but did not want to leave us. I reassured him, as I had several times before, that he could go if God called him, that we would be okay as God was still caring for us.  That calmed him and we sat and talked for hours. By about 10:00 he was sleeping again, this time very peacefully.

Several times that day he awoke in severe pain. In response, the nurse increased the recommended dosage of morphine, keeping him sedated. When she came to do a regular exam and wound dressing the next morning, it was clear that his body was breaking down.  His kidneys were failing, large sections of his skin was becoming necrotic. She decided to put him back on CTC that evening. He never made it there, as he passed away just a little before 4:00 PM that day, Monday, November 5, 2007.

Even that was both a good time and a bad one. He was gone from our daily lives, and we would miss him. Yet, he was out of pain, free of his disabilities and with the Lord.  In that we could rejoice. Please share in our Prasie that God has taken another saint home.