Life In Death

Death came around this week.  Tomorrow we’ll go to a memorial service for Robert, who passed away last Sunday after a very long and hard fought battle.  Robert has always been an inspiration to all of us in our Sunday School class, and I’m sure to many others in his life.  For at least 8 years that I know about, he has dealt with one medical condition after another, starting with his first lung transplant, then the second, then a slew of respiratory issues related to those.  Then the cancer came…finally taking his earthly life.

Robert was an intellectual, always impressing us with his knowledge of the Bible.  He was extremely well-read, and could speak intelligently about a whole host of topics, ranging from agriculture to world history to scripture.  We could always count on him to enlighten us in our Sunday morning discussions, and bring us back from our meanders to the central focus of a particular Bible verse.

When the end of the fight was becoming more and more clear for Robert, he had said that he at least hoped to see his youngest son graduate from High School this coming May.  He’ll be watching that happen, just from a different vantage point than he thought.

I remember years ago when I first really came to know Robert.  He had struggled through one of his early medical battles, which almost took his life.  He shared with our class one Sunday how, during a long coma, he had actually seen Heaven.  When he eventually came out of his coma, he remembered vividly the details of what he had seen, wrote a complete description of it, and even drew a picture.  He shared that picture with us one Sunday morning.  As he tearfully described for us what he had actually seen on the other side of the bridge, we all came away totally convinced that he truly had “been there”…he’d gone to Heaven, but God just wasn’t quite ready for him to stay yet.  I will never forget his passionate description of the place he knew was there waiting for all of us in that pain-free, worry-free, joyful world that he had actually seen.

In the closing days of his earthly life, the stories we heard of his never-dying spirit were both humorous and inspiring.  Once, when he knew that death was imminent, he began to hold up his hand with his first two fingers extended, like a victory sign.  He was unable to speak clearly at this point, and his wife, Pegi, and others in the room kept trying to figure out what he wanted, what he was trying to say (“two donuts instead of one?”).  Finally, he softly whispered in Pegi’s ear the word “Peace”.  Everyone in the room knew then that Robert was truly at peace with his situation, happy to be going back to that place he’d seen before.  She put the tips of her two fingers against his, and they both smiled.

Another time, he whispered in Pegi’s ear that he wanted her to come with him.  “Why can’t you come with me?”, he said to her.  She sweetly told him that he had to go on before her for now, but to save a place for her and she’d see him soon!  And then she humorously added, “But don’t worry, Mom is there already, waiting for you!”.  He smiled.  Robert’s mother-in-law, Sandra, was a woman who we all came to love and respect, but who could be very hard to take at times!

Death is such a strange thing.  For most of my contemporaries, it has only come around a few times in our lives.  Until we get much older, we naturally hope that it will remain just a stranger who doesn’t visit very often.  Most of us see it so rarely that it’s hard to know how to handle it when it comes around us.  But I can tell you this…Seeing how Robert dealt with it these final few months, and how in the end he actually embraced it, has truly been an inspiration.  He was an unwavering believer and follower of Jesus Christ, and, as all believers know, he knew that he was finally moving on, to that beautiful place of eternal life that was already so familiar to him, where pain is removed forever, where breathing comes very easy.

Tomorrow….we celebrate!