Think Wink.

January 26, 2007, 4:30 PM will always be a day I will never be able to forget. For the past 20+ years, my one and only grandfather has been slowly declining in health. It seems like as long as I can remember he has had a bad heart, bad lungs…his body was never good. His right leg was amputated just below the knee. This past September, my grandfather noticed that he could never get through a sentence, his voice would just fail him. He went to the doctor and found out that a tumor had grown in his vocal cords and was destroying them. The doctors ran some tests and found that his lungs were almost overtaken by tumors. They could have treated them, but that most likely would have killed him. If they didn’t treat him, he would die sometime later, in a very painful way. The family opted not to treat him.

Over the next four months, his health more rapidly declined. Last Saturday, January 20, he was admitted into the hospital because he could not breathe. The doctors stabilized him and then released him on Sunday. While there, the doctors took him off his meds and put him on morphine. That wasn’t a good sign. Wednesday, I got a phone call from my brother saying that Grandpa’s kidneys were failing, and he was going to pass soon. I rushed home to see Grandpa one last time.

Grandpa was Grandpa that night, still goofing around and being himself. He saw everyone all sad and was like “What’s wrong with you? I ain’t dying yet.” Thursday, he was worse. I took his hand and prayed with him. I sat there all that afternoon with my family and my Grandpa. He was so tired and all he wanted to do was sleep. Yet everyone wanted to talk and move around, which woke him up. Grandpa was ready to toss everyone out and lock the door. I went home to take care of Q and Olivia while my dad stayed at Grandpa’s. That night about 8:15 PM, it looked like Grandpa was gone, but he made it through another night.

Friday, January 26th between 11:00 AM and 12:00 PM, my Grandpa slipped into a comma. Q, who only has to go to school half days, and I rushed to pick up Olivia at 12:30, and raced to Fortuna. I prayed over him one last time and Quintin said goodbye as only he could. Others came over and said their goodbyes. It was hard. At 4:00, the hospice nurse came by and said it was almost time. For the next half-an-hour, I constantly watched his chest to see if he was still alive. At 4:30 PM, I saw that his chest stopped and all attempts to get him to respond to any kind of stimuli failed. The nurse pronounced him dead at 4:30.

At 4:30 PM, the gates of heaven opened and Jesus descended down into Fortuna, MO. He entered into a small house where the Dorsey family had gathered. He took Grandpa by the hand and stood him up. Jesus led my Grandpa out of this world and into the realms of glory above, to be with Jesus every day for eternity. In the blink of an eye, John 14:1-3 occurred right before my eyes. Jesus said in that passage,

Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.

I miss him already, and I can say, I am absolutely jealous of my grandfather. He is in that house where God is. He is in the presence of absolute perfection. Perfect goodness, perfect, love, perfect joy, perfect beauty, all wrapped up within the Trinity.

Father, Yahweh, take care of my grandpa. Hold him in your arms and never let go. Open his eyes to see your manifold beauties. Father love him in your perfect love. Hold him tightly. Father, give my family and I the grace to endure and to survive this loss and to move on in joy. Father help us to morn him like those who have the hope of the resurrection. It is in Christ name, and for the sake of the name of Christ, I pray. Amen.

MK vs DC???

I have to wait until 2009…

Transformers: More than Meets the Eye