My Daddy was an extraordinary, but simple man. His family and home meant the world to him. He made no really great marks according to the worlds ways, but in the lives of the people who knew him he made a very big mark. He taught me what is was to be someone who was a decent human being. When he came home from the doctor in March of 1996; he told us he had cancer. He was scheldued for a biospy of the bladder a few weeks later. I felt like my world had shifted. I have always been a Daddy's girl. This hit me really hard. Even this was a relatively simple procedure. we all had this incredible need to spend time with him. (God knew it was the last time we would have with him) You would have thought we had been told he had only a couple of weeks to live. Everyone seemed to need to be with him and tell him what he meant to us and our lives. I was unabkle to tell him how I felt. Everytime I tried, I would end up crying and I did not want to upset him. So one night I sat down and wrote him a letter telling him. I will always be grateful that I did this.
He went to the hospital to have the biospy and then removal of tumors in his bladder. They found 1 large and 2 small cancerous tumors and removed them. He was in recovery and doing fine. He was rousing up and talking. Momma was told they would bring him back to his room in about and hour. Shortly later, around 3 pm, he started hemmoraging. The doctor said where they had removed the largtest tumor it was thin and there was a possibillty it had perforated and they would give him some blood and possibly do surgery to correct this. But this was not to be. He steadily got worse. Momma called us and wemade the 3 hour trip hoping he would live till we got there.
From the minute we got there it quickly became apparent theat God was running this show. He was in ICU. Normaly visitation is very limited there but we were allowed unlimited visits. They told us that even though he couldn't respond, he was aware and could hear us. They said; watch the monitors and you can see him reacting. They doctors did everything they could but they were unable to save him. But God gave us 2 dys in which he loving led us to the point where we knew that he was taking him home. He rallied just enough to give us encouragment. The grandchildren returned home Sunday evening. At the same time they arrived home. his heart developed a weird rythmn. They were never able to correct this., Sometime during this day , he shed 2 bigt tears. My sister Pam gasphed and said "He just saw Mike" (our deceased brother) She just knew this......, |
