What Do You Say to Fate?

Yesterday was my dad's 96th birthday. and my oldest sister Ruth is in Guymon visiting for the occasion and the week. Yesterday afternoon she called from the hospital to let me know that just before lunch, Daddy collapsed. The EMTs said that in the ambulance he was talking, but they couldn't understand how that was possible because they couldn't get any vital signs. This was verified by doctors in the ER who experienced the same and kept trying different machines, because the machines were saying he was dead; and he was saying "Let me sit up." One of my friends commented, "If that isn't good old Oklahoma sticktoitivness I don't know what is." He's always been a tenacious over-achiever.

The doctors think it was a pulmonary embolism, but they still don't know for sure. That's how they're treating it.

My sister Jo and her husband Mike were on their way back to Guymon from a wedding in Arkansas, and got delayed in Oklahoma City with some RV problem. All very frustrating and they were afraid Dad would pass before they got a chance to say good-bye.

The doctors decided to heli-port him to Oklahoma City because they don't have the proper facilities in Guymon. (According to Jo, the Guymon hospital doesn't have the proper facilities to take care of the family pet.) So the fact that Jo and Mike got stuck there and were able to be at the hospital waiting for him is pretty amazing as Universal alignment goes.

I talked to Jo in OKC this morning, and our dad's stable, but shutting down. He has not regained consciousness since he collapsed yesterday, but there does seem to be a certain awareness and response when she tells him things.

He is 96 afterall. He's had not only a long life, but a rich and mostly happy one. We've been preparing for this time for awhile. But how do you prepare for it? I have read that psychologically we view our parents as God because they have been there through our personal eternity. How do I prepare for God to die?