Reflecting

Twelve years ago today, my dad was able to leave behind his cancerous body and not experience any more pain.
Washington Christian Academy gave me the rest of the 2000 - 2001 school year off, so that I could fly from Maryland to British Columbia and spend the last six weeks of my dad's earthly life with him.  I still remember when I walked into his hospital room after flying across the continent and saw him looking swollen from the steroids he was taking at the time.  Dad was in the hospital because he had congestive heart failure, probably having something to do with his lung cancer and his heart disease.  Within a week of being in BC, I signed on to be dad's primary care giver.  When I think back, that was a HUGE change for me.  I had never in my life ever thought about being a nurse or doing nurse type duties.  Those first couple of weeks were very stressful, learning how to change a bed with a person still in it, organizing dad's medication, figuring out what food he could eat, and organizing the home care nurses.  I remember being emotionally spent by the second week.  Fortunately, I have good brothers and they stepped in to relieve some of that stress.
What a precious time those six weeks were.  It wasn't always easy to see dad's health deteriorating, but I remember two weeks before dad died, he kept telling me, "I want to go home."  I hadn't clued in right away, thinking, well, dad you are home.  (He left the hospital and we set up his apartment with hospital bed etc.)  What I believe he really was saying was that he wanted to go to his heavenly home.  Dad was not always able to communicate clearly, sometimes speaking in Dutch and sometimes only speaking some of the words in a sentence, but to clearly hear him say he wanted to be with his Heavenly Father, was a comfort for those of us still left on this earth, although we knew we would miss him terribly.
I still think about how he loved to tease us kids.  When we played games, we would all gang up just so we could beat dad.  :)
Dad and mom immigrated from The Netherlands to Canada with three small children.  My youngest brother and I were not born yet, but have heard the stories over the years that life was not easy.  Making a living meant working hard.  There were difficult times, but there was always their faith in God that he would provide.
So, today I went with Brian and Bette VanderHaak up to Mashiko looking to purchase some pottery.  It was a couple hour drive which gave me time to reflect about dad.  The TODAY devotional was interesting.  Go ahead and read it, a link is up there on the right.  I would agree with Thea Leunk, "Everything will be all right."  "Shalom."