“For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”

 2 Corinthians 5: 1

Dear Family and Friends,

Last night at 7:20 p.m., after a year and a half of fighting, Timothy Robert Jones laid aside his earthly tent and went home to be with His Lord.

As I sit here, I am trying to decide what details to share.  I want to give enough information, but not too much as to be offensive.  Saturday morning, Sunbridge called our home to say that Tim had suddenly become very ill.  Becky had taken the call and as she told me about it, I was struck with a feeling of déjà vu.  I remembered a day, eighteen months ago where one moment, things were exactly the same as they had been day after day after day, and then suddenly with one phone call, everything changed.

As I drove to Sunbridge, I was apprehensive.  There were usually signs that Tim was coming down with something, and just the day before, Tim was fine.  What was wrong and how could I have missed it?  This was different, my heart was telling me.  This is the beginning of the end.  I walked into his room, and one look at Tim confirmed my thoughts.  He was sicker than he has ever been.  No obvious signs of infection, no fever, and his vitals were actually normal, though.   Strange.  We began treating him for his nausea. 

A few hours later, Tim started having seizures.  He is on meds for that, but for some reason the medication wasn’t working.  We gave him Adavan, which is a heavy duty drug.  Tim was given that once before and it was like, “So long, George, see ya next Thursday,” kind of thing.  It really does the trick.  We also started Tim on oxygen as his breathing was becoming labored.  The horrible seizures stopped, but then Tim began making some other very strange movements.  At first I thought he was having some new kind of seizure, but after a couple of hours, I realized that I had seen this once before.  When Tim was first injured, his brain was terribly insulted and injured.  Pressure began to build up in his cranium and Tim made bizarre movements called posturing.  Well, Tim was posturing again and that was a really bad sign.  Hospice began working with us. 

All this time, I am thinking to myself, God has spared Tim time and time again and that Tim would turn the corner in a day or two, but it never happened.  Tim’s condition slowly worsened.  Hospice offered us a private room on Monday afternoon where the kids and I and our family and friends would have a more comfortable time sitting with Tim.  I gratefully accepted.  It took several hours to arrange the transfer.  Tim was holding steady.  Shortly before his ride arrived, I looked into Tim’s eyes and noticed that his pupils were uneven.  I called the nurse and she said that intracranial pressure was building.  I thought I noticed a change in Tim’s breathing, too, but wasn’t sure.  I called the kids who were at home at the moment and told them where to meet me.  Tim was transferred to a wonderful facility about 15 minutes away.  I arrived with Tim and the nurses got him comfortable in his bed and a new shirt.  Five minutes after we arrived, one of the nurses took Tim’s vitals.  I looked at the screen and was so confused.  Those numbers are crazy, I thought.  This can’t be right.  I felt so scared.  I asked, “What’s happening??” and as I looked down at Tim, I realized he had stopped breathing.   

You think that you are ready for something hard like this, that you have prepared for this moment, but you can’t – not really.  It is so hard and as I stood there crying, I wished so much that the kids had made it in time.  About a minute later, one of the nurses said, “Oh my, he is such a fighter.”  As I looked down, Tim had begun breathing again.  At first, I was really confused but then it hit me.  Tim was waiting for the kids.  I told him that if he could just hang on a few minutes that they would be there.  He fought for ten more minutes. Becky, Rae and Dan came in and joined me at his bedside.  We were all crying and I said, “You’re daddy was waiting for you,” and at that very moment, Tim slipped away.

The nurses said that what probably happened was Tim’s shunt became blocked or infected.  Nothing, not even brain surgery (which I would never subject Tim to at this point) would have helped him.  I say that God decided it was time for Tim to come home. I don’t know why January 31, 2005 was THE day for Tim.  Why not 6 months from now or 6 months ago?  All I know is that Psalm 139 says that God has ordained the number of our days before we were even born.

The kids and I are okay.  It is amazing to me how you can cry quarts and quarts for months and never run out of tears.  Last night, when we finally got home, I looked at the zombies that sort of resembled my children laying around our living room and I prayed, “Father, how can I help them?”  I went to the closet and got a big box of photos.  Photos that the kids had not looked at since their dad was hurt.  I used to secretly sit in my closet some nights when I couldn’t sleep and look at these photos of Tim.  It was a dumb thing to do at the time because it was like torturing myself, looking at the photos of a healthy, vibrant, smiling Tim and then to have to walk into his room and see him as he was.  But, I grabbed the box, went back to the living room and started handing out the pictures. The kids eyes brightened and they said, “Now, this is MY DAD.  This is what he was really like.”  We had almost forgotten the way he used to be.  We sat there laughing about what Tim was doing in this or that picture and then the kids started talking excitedly about where daddy was right at that minute, who he was seeing – in person!  Becky said Dad was helping to get our family’s mansion all ready for us to join him someday, to which I replied, “Oh great, that means the first thing I’ll have to do when I get to heaven is clean!!”  Daniel said that the first thing his Dad would do was figure out all the good places to eat.  They started talking about how their dad would be pulling the Lord and the Apostle Paul aside asking them all sorts of tough theological questions.  “Now, what exactly did you mean here?  I never really understood this verse.” 

I guess our sadness is greatly tempered right now by our joy over Tim’s deliverance.  We miss him so much, but we are so happy that he is finally completely healed and home.  Moments ago, we pitied Tim and thought how blessed we were to not be in his condition.  Now, as Tim strolls along the streets of gold, he pities us for having to remain here a while longer.

My dad and Pastor Steve will be helping me make funeral arrangements today, so I will have someone keep you posted.

Words cannot express my gratitude to all of you for holding us up for so long.  God bless you.

Always in His loving grip,

Carole, Becky, Rachel, and Daniel

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea.  And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.  And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying , or pain;  the first things have passed away….”  

“Yes, I am coming quickly.” 

Amen.  Come, Lord Jesus.

Revelation 21:1-4, 22:20