JonInMiddleGA
10-23-2008, 09:17 PM
I wasn't sure how to address this but since I know it has been mentioned at times over the years I wanted to acknowledge it somehow.
A few hours ago my father-in-law passed away due to complications related to a prolonged illness. My wife was with him at the end & his death was relatively peaceful as he had lapsed into what amounted to a coma around about 12-14 hours earlier. The official cause of death will likely be something like complications from pneumonia but in reality it was more like the cumulative total of events over the past 12 years.
Having survived an catastrophic aortic aneurysm (completely replacement required instead of repair) on the opening night of the Olympic Games in Atlanta, the rest of his life was spent fighting through a seemingly endless series of health problems. What began as an bump in the road here & there eventually devolved into persistent problems. Mostly lung issues rather than heart problems somewhat oddly enough, but time & again I watched him defy the most dire predictions of doctors, all reasonable expectations, and our worst fears. He was written off for dead on at least three occasions, faced predictions of the worst more times than I could count but until today each time he rallied back, until finally the cycle was simply too much to overcome.
But he fought to the end until finally there wasn't much left to fight with and as sad as losing him is, I'm relieved for his sake that so much suffering has finally ended.
From the practical standpoint, it's a really screwed up situation at the moment. He died today around 5 something, my wife spent the next 3 hours sitting with the body while waiting for the funeral home to pick up the body. Apparently the dominant funeral home in the area is backed up with some 17 services which is well over what they can handle so his visitation won't take place until Sunday night with the funeral not until Monday. After much discussion & several changes in plans, Will & I won't be heading to Tennessee until at least tomorrow evening. That way he only misses one or possibly two days (depends upon when we get back on Monday night) instead of as many as three. That sucks in all our opinions but it's a practical reality that three days of makeup work with a 24-48 hours turnaround just isn't realistic to expect him to do. But when he's already got two hours of homework a night, plus the daily work to boot ... what can you do? Combine that with the declining health of our cat that needs daily medication & is due for another chemo treatment Monday (hoping to reschedule for tomorrow, as her remission abruptly ended a few weeks ago & his condition is steadily declining). So we're just winging it I guess.
I appreciate your prayers as we go through what will doubtless be a very trying weekend, for my wife, son, and mother-in-law as they grieve their loss (along with me and the rest of his surviving relatives) and if you're so inclined a small prayer for me as well having been asked to deliver the eulogy (along with a reading of Tennyson's Crossing the Bar, just simply that I could come close to doing justice in honoring a fine man who served as both a strong role model in many facets of his life and as a caring individual who loved his family a great deal.
My thanks in advance, I needed to talk about this a little bit somewhere & it's tough being separated from my wife during the first part of this, where I don't have much choice but to try to keep some other balls juggling in the air at the expense of being as available for her as I'd like to be.
A few hours ago my father-in-law passed away due to complications related to a prolonged illness. My wife was with him at the end & his death was relatively peaceful as he had lapsed into what amounted to a coma around about 12-14 hours earlier. The official cause of death will likely be something like complications from pneumonia but in reality it was more like the cumulative total of events over the past 12 years.
Having survived an catastrophic aortic aneurysm (completely replacement required instead of repair) on the opening night of the Olympic Games in Atlanta, the rest of his life was spent fighting through a seemingly endless series of health problems. What began as an bump in the road here & there eventually devolved into persistent problems. Mostly lung issues rather than heart problems somewhat oddly enough, but time & again I watched him defy the most dire predictions of doctors, all reasonable expectations, and our worst fears. He was written off for dead on at least three occasions, faced predictions of the worst more times than I could count but until today each time he rallied back, until finally the cycle was simply too much to overcome.
But he fought to the end until finally there wasn't much left to fight with and as sad as losing him is, I'm relieved for his sake that so much suffering has finally ended.
From the practical standpoint, it's a really screwed up situation at the moment. He died today around 5 something, my wife spent the next 3 hours sitting with the body while waiting for the funeral home to pick up the body. Apparently the dominant funeral home in the area is backed up with some 17 services which is well over what they can handle so his visitation won't take place until Sunday night with the funeral not until Monday. After much discussion & several changes in plans, Will & I won't be heading to Tennessee until at least tomorrow evening. That way he only misses one or possibly two days (depends upon when we get back on Monday night) instead of as many as three. That sucks in all our opinions but it's a practical reality that three days of makeup work with a 24-48 hours turnaround just isn't realistic to expect him to do. But when he's already got two hours of homework a night, plus the daily work to boot ... what can you do? Combine that with the declining health of our cat that needs daily medication & is due for another chemo treatment Monday (hoping to reschedule for tomorrow, as her remission abruptly ended a few weeks ago & his condition is steadily declining). So we're just winging it I guess.
I appreciate your prayers as we go through what will doubtless be a very trying weekend, for my wife, son, and mother-in-law as they grieve their loss (along with me and the rest of his surviving relatives) and if you're so inclined a small prayer for me as well having been asked to deliver the eulogy (along with a reading of Tennyson's Crossing the Bar, just simply that I could come close to doing justice in honoring a fine man who served as both a strong role model in many facets of his life and as a caring individual who loved his family a great deal.
My thanks in advance, I needed to talk about this a little bit somewhere & it's tough being separated from my wife during the first part of this, where I don't have much choice but to try to keep some other balls juggling in the air at the expense of being as available for her as I'd like to be.