RIP DAD

I've put off writing about my dad's death because I had a really hard time of it that first week. But now I feel better about it. I miss him a lot but I know he's so much happier in the spirit world. But here's what happened...

Sunday, January 25, 2015 about 4 AM

In the week that I had off up to this point I hadn't had a good nights sleep at all. In fact I was always falling asleep about 4 AM. Well, this night (Saturday into Sunday) I fell asleep after I got home about 11:30 PM and I was sleeping quite well when my phone rang. It was a little after 4 AM. She told my father had passed. I was so groggy it didn't really hit me and I tried waking Paul up and when I told him, he responded, "Are you serious?" And I said, "Yes." I then headed out to Mom's. When I got there a hospice nurse was there. Dad was in his bedroom in the hospital bed. He looked like he was napping, which made it seeing him dead not as shocking as I thought it would be as all my life he's mainly spent his time not at work napping. He looked much more peaceful than when I had left. I was so glad our last words were that we loved each other. Mom said she hadn't been able to sleep and got out of bed around 3:30 to give him a drink as he was restless but he couldn't even sip. Then she decided to give him some morphine as he was uncomfortable and she said he took a few breaths, and then a big deep one, his tongue rolled out, and he was gone.

Soon, Heather and Tyler and Pibby and Jenny showed up. Paul showed up as well. I didn't think any of them were going to come for some reason. About an hour after I got there the Valley View Funeral Home people showed up and took his body away. That's when I started getting teary-eyed as it was hard seeing them zip up the body bag and knowing that he wouldn't return. Bishop Barney came over for a moment and Mr. Ballard of the funeral home said that mom would need to come over to the funeral home at 10 AM to set up arrangements for the viewing and funeral. Bishop Barney asked to come with us.

The morning was very beautiful and clear but for a cloud over the eastern mountains that looked very shiny. Pibby said that's probably where dad was. All of us went to Village Inn for breakfast. It was very strange not having dad there, even more so not having to worry about getting home to him or helping him in and out of the car.

After breakfast everyone went home except me. I accompanied Mom to the funeral home with Bishop Barney. We set the funeral for Friday, January 30th at Mom's church with a viewing the previous night at the funeral home.

All day people came to visit, particularly Mom's sisters.

I wasn't sad all day...I suppose it was from shock and maybe from sheer relief.

I'll write more about that week later, I just wanted to write about what happened when he died.

RIP Dad