It was quite a couple of
weeks for me. A little less than three weeks ago, on April 6, I was
coming back from a meeting in Pierre when I got a call from the Armour nursing
home telling me that Dad was not doing well. They didn’t come right out
and say, “You’d better come”, but that was the clear implication. So, I got a few things put together at the
office, let a few of the church leaders know that I wasn’t going to be in
church the next day but would leave bulletins and a copy of the sermon for
them, Wanda got us packed, and we went to Armour.
It was a long couple of
days. You could tell Dad wasn’t doing well, but he was still awake and
conversant to a limited extent. On Sunday, however, it became clear that
his time was growing short. On Monday,
April 8, at about a quarter to one in the afternoon, Dad passed away. He
went quietly and peacefully, with no struggle, for which we are grateful.
We stayed until Tuesday
morning, to be with Mom and make funeral arrangements. We scheduled Dad’s
funeral for Monday, April 15, because of the huge snowstorm that was predicted.
We then came back to Gettysburg to beat said snowstorm, and as you know,
the snowstorm did not disappoint. Still, by Friday it looked like things
would get back to normal.
Then Friday night, I got
sick. Today they probably give it a bunch of scary initials like QRXV,
but back in the day they just called it the stomach flu. Saturday morning
I was no better. I thought about trying
to tough it out, but the last time I had this, about three years ago, I toughed
it out for three days and ended up in the hospital anyway. So I decided
that if that was the likely result, I might as well go now and get it over
with, and I did. And once again, we had
to let some church leaders know I wasn’t going to be in church on Sunday.
I hated that, because it was Palm Sunday, but there wasn’t much I could
do.
At the hospital they gave
me some nausea medication and about four bags of fluid. I felt better,
and I got out late Sunday afternoon. But
while I was there, I learned that my mom had RSV, my brother in Virginia and
his wife both had influenza, and my brother in Nebraska and his wife both had
really bad colds. Plus, Wanda was dealing with a change in her seizure
medication, and had almost no energy.
So, we had to contact the funeral home and postpone the funeral. We have rescheduled it, and it will now be on
May 13 at 11:30.
So, is there something I
should learn from all this? I don’t know.
Some have said my illness was brought on by lack of rest, and I suspect
that’s true. Staying up with my dad all night Sunday night was probably
not helpful. I’m getting a little old to
pull an all-nighter. But at the same time, I don’t regret it, and even if
I knew what was going to happen I’d do it again. Sometimes the circumstances simply demand
that you do what you have to do and you deal with the consequences later.
There is one thing I
learned. Well, I didn’t learn it so much as I was reminded of it.
We have some awesome people in this parish. The people of our churches banded together
and supported me. And, they found ways to carry on without me. A lot of people stepped up and did things and
led services even though they were not necessarily comfortable doing that.
I am very grateful to them.
But it’s not just the
people of our churches who have been awesome. All the people in the
communities I serve have been awesome.
That includes people who are not part of my churches. It includes
people I don’t even know very well. We
have been overwhelmed by cards and notes and kind words and memorials. It
has really been incredible.
You know, sometimes people
will ask me something like, “How come you want to stay in those little towns?
Why don’t you try to move up to a bigger church in a bigger place?” Well, this is why. In towns like this, we really are a
community. In fact, we’re more than that, we’re a family. And the people of Gettysburg, Onida, and Agar
have welcomed Wanda and me and made us a part of the family. We will
forever be grateful for all the support you’ve given us, not in just the last
couple of weeks, but in our nearly eight years here.
So, we have the funeral set
now, I’m feeling better, Mom is better, my brothers and their wives are better,
and while Wanda is still struggling we’re hopeful that she’s headed in the
right direction, too. I would appreciate it if you’d keep my mom in your
prayers. She’s doing about as well as
can be expected, but as some of you know, it’s hard to lose someone who’s been
a part of your life for so long. She and Dad were married seventy-two
years, and in a marriage like that, you really start to understand what the
Bible means when it says, “The two become one.”
She feels like a part of her is gone now, and it’s hard. So your
prayers for here would be appreciated.
I hope you had a wonderful
and blessed Easter. Let’s move forward now and serve God together.
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