Good Friday

So when Daddy was in the hospital we were all there, all the time.  We decided to take shifts to stay with him in his room in case he needed anything during the night. No one really left but we just had two in the room at a time.   My partner was Janet.  So she and I had our turn several times and it never failed that Daddy never slept when we were there.  Everyone else would say he slept here and there but not us.  We kind of even joked that he slept with everyone else cause he stayed up all night with us.

One of the nights we were in there I decided to read scripture out of the bible.  She and I would just keep reading, we'd take turns and just go from page to page.   It was hard to just sit there so this is what we came up with.  One night in particular Dad was really just struggling to relax, he was all over the bed and just awake. I was reading from the bible, just reading and reading.  In walks the cleaning lady and she is tip toeing around doing what she needs to do.  She hears me reading and she tells me to read a particular verse.  So I go to it, which was Paul to the Thessalonians, and read.  Low and behold, Dad started to relax, and fell asleep.

It was one of those things I so remember because when it came time to plan his funeral the Priest gave us some scriptures to pick from to use at the mass.  And yes, one of them was the one the cleaning lady told us to read. We picked that one and it was also the one that I read at his mass.  Therefore, console one another with these words.

 A reading from the First Letter of St. Paul to the Thessalonians 4:13-18

We do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters,

     about those who have fallen asleep,

     so that you may not grieve like the rest, who have no hope.

For if we believe that Jesus died and rose,

     so too will God, through Jesus,

     bring with him those who have fallen asleep.

Indeed, we tell you this, on the word of the Lord,

     that we who are alive,

     who are left until the coming of the Lord,

     will surely not precede those who have fallen asleep.

For the Lord himself, with a word of command,

     with the voice of an archangel and with the trumpet of God,

     will come down from heaven,

     and the dead in Christ will rise first.

Then we who are alive, who are left,

     will be caught up together with them in the clouds

     to meet the Lord in the air.

Thus we shall always be with the Lord.

Therefore, console one another with these words.

With today being Good Friday, I am thinking about Daddy.   I miss him so much!!