Tomorrow is Veteran’s Day. Veteran’s day will also be the day that my father’s body was cremated. The day a proud soldier’s body was returned to dust. (I have woken up covered in stress hives FIVE days over the last month and a half. Lord Jesus I pray that You to erase any painful sounds and images from my mind!)
“By the sweat of your brow will you have food to eat until you return to the ground from which you were made. For you were made from dust, and to dust you will return.”
(Genesis 3:19 NLT)
“Well, it’s been about an hour. Let’s go ahead and pray before the funeral home arrives to take the body.” I’m not sure if there is a way to say those words more gently, but coming from a Retired Military & Hospice Priest, I suppose this is as good as it gets.
Why are those words replaying in my head like a broken record? It has been a week and 2 days since pop went to heaven. But I still remember the sounds of that day.
It was the last time I would ever see his earthly body.
When they wheeled the stretcher into the house, I felt a lightning bolt of panic run through my body. My face was buried into my daddy’s chest, drenched in uncontrollable tears. I’ll never forget the sound… I dug my nails into his arms the moment I heard the wheels come through the front door. For a moment I wondered what would happen if I didn’t let them take him away. I could at least put up a fight! I thought, if they want to take my dad, they would have to pry me off his chest first!
I lost my sanity for a moment. Uncontrollably crying on the verge of a full-on adult temper tantrum.
(Where am I? Is this really happening right now? Jesus, wake me up from this nightmare!)
At 12:09pm on November 1st, 2019, I stopped taking photos of our journey. I just couldn’t. Dad wasn’t there anymore.
“So we are always confident, even though we know that as long as we live in these bodies we are not at home with the Lord. For we live by believing and not by seeing. Yes, we are fully confident, and we would rather be away from these earthly bodies, for then we will be at home with the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 5:6-8 NLT)
🇺🇸 Happy Veteran’s Day, Dad. 🇺🇸 You will always be my hero. Tomorrow I will celebrate you finally rocking your eternal body, completely free from any limitations you once had. What pure bliss. What overwhelming joy. You are finally where you told me in your last days that you wanted to be… in the place prepared just for you….
Home with your Savior 🙌🏼
👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼
Below are the last professional photos I took with my dad…. and with both of my parents. Dad had already been diagnosed with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia, but I had no idea. He lived almost 5 more years.
Dear Miss Mary 