It's been quite the month...

It was three weeks ago today that Dad called saying it was becoming clear that Grandpa's time on earth was drawing to a close... So Mary and I drove down immediately. We had the privilege and rare opportunity to be with our Grandpa during the last week of his life.

When we arrived, Grandpa was still in the hospital. Then on Tuesday he was discharged for hospice care at home until he passed the following Monday. Mary and I stayed with Grandmom and Grandpa all that week ~ and what a blessing it was to us. We were able to sit with him, talk to him, sing to him and pray with him, hold his hand... and boy, did he have a grip!! He wasn't able to open his eyes much (he did every now and then), and certainly couldn't talk, but the one way we felt some sort of connection to him was through his grip. He loved to hold our hands. As the week went on, his hand became more withered and weak, but even two days before he died he still had a good grip. Amazing. The very last full day he was with us, he wasn't able to open his eyes at all or grip at all. We knew the time was near.

But the special thing about that last full day - Sunday - was how the whole family was gathered around him. Jenny with Jason (her youngest), Nomie and Scott and all six kids, me, Mary and Rob, Mom and Dad, and of course Grandmom. After lunch we all gathered in the living room around Grandpa's bed ~ singing and praying and sharing memories. His favorite hymn was How Great Thou Art, so we sang that of course along with many others. It was a sweet, sweet time. I will never forget it.

And then that night, between 1:00 and 3:00 on Monday morning, he slipped off into eternity. Mary had been with him administering morphine on a regular basis (to help make breathing comfortable and in case of pain), and when she got up for the 3:00 a.m. dose, he was gone. She texted/called/woke us all up, and we came to his side - Grandmom, Jenny, Mary & Rob, Mom & Dad, and me.

My first reaction when I saw Mary's text message saying that he was gone was, "Praise the Lord! Thank you, Jesus, for taking him home! Thank you, Lord! Hallelujah!..." He was no longer stuck in an old, deteriorating body. He was free from the bonds of this world and was now wholly with his Savior. What a beautiful, beautiful thought! Jenny and I got ourselves together (we were staying in The Welcome) and came in... And then I saw him. And it hit me. He was lying there, so still. He was so peaceful. I kissed his hand and, later, his forehead. Here was my Grandpa. My Grandpa. I've known him my whole life. I have so many memories of him - so many I can't count them. He's my Grandpa. And there he was, his body vacant and completely still. No breath. No rising and falling of the chest. Just utter stillness. It was such a precious moment; I can't even fully describe it. The tears flowed and flowed.

It's not like I wished he was back. I mean, he was 93. His body was tired. It was time. But the tears flowed from the realization that I was witnessing a precious moment. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. Precious. Precious. And he was now in the presence of Jesus. What a thought! What a beautiful, amazing, precious thought! And it wasn't just a thought... it was reality. Wow.

That morning, as the family sat there with his body, prayed, sang, wept and rejoiced, a heaviness lifted from all of us. I didn't expect to feel that. There was much about the experience of watching my Grandpa die that I didn't expect to feel. But that morning it was as if a birthing process was over. He was, at last, birthed from the created realm into the eternal one, and we could rest. So could he. :)

The hospice nurse came; the funeral home people came; and within a few hours Grandpa's body was taken away.

We cried so much that morning; but we also laughed. We cried and cried, and laughed and laughed. Watching them take his body away was painful and tender. The thought of Grandpa being with Jesus was precious and amazing. And just as Grandpa made us laugh so many times throughout his life, humor and laughter flooded us... because of the hope we have! His life wasn't over; it was just beginning! And we will see him again. All that release of emotion was a healing balm to our souls.

I went back home that day. Grandpa's memorial service was planned for the following Sunday afternoon, and during that week I put this little slideshow together:



Jeff and I returned to Lexington that next weekend for the service. When we arrived at Mom & Dad's cabin at lunchtime on Saturday, Mom gently told me more family news: my Grandma on the other side of the family (her Mom) had unexpectedly passed away in her sleep the night before! Eleanor Enlow was 92 and still living on her own, just down the street from my aunt and uncle. She wasn't sick. Her body just gave out. What a wonderful way to go!

So our family had Grandpa's service on Sunday afternoon, and then we made the trek down to North Carolina on Monday - the Schneiders, Mom and Dad, and Mary and me. Grandma's viewing was that Monday night, and her burial service was Tuesday afternoon. It was healing to have that closure; it was also good to spend time with that side of our family. Uncle Phil, Aunt Sue, Tanya and Chloe... and Uncle Rog, Aunt Carol, and Jimmy were all there. Funerals are sad, but they are also a neat sort of opportunity to have an unexpected family reunion. I love that, and I love my extended family. They are such neat, godly people!

Both George Decker and Eleanor Enlow were in their 90s and had known the Lord intimately from their youth. I have been given an amazing legacy. George Decker's first wife, Gladys, died in 1984. Eleanor Enlow's husband, Elmer, died in 2006. All four of my biological grandparents were godly people, passed on their faith to their children and grandchildren, and are now with Jesus. We are so blessed to have had them all in our lives.

And now I have one grandparent left: JoAnn Decker! :) She is such a godly, sweet, joyful, faithful, loving, servant-hearted woman. She served my Grandpa so well throughout their marriage (which began in 1986), but especially in the last years when his body was slowly deteriorating. She is a woman to be emulated. Thank you, Grandmom.

Now... life goes on! Jeff and I leave tomorrow for a 12-day trip to California! He has business in the Los Angeles area over the next two weeks, and I am tagging along. With a few days off between work obligations, this is turning into a fun, nearly-free vacation for us, and I am very much looking forward to it!! I'll be posting pictures and stories from our trip in a couple of weeks!

Until then, God bless and keep you all. :)