Dear friends,

I'm writing to let you know that my father passed away in the hospital this morning at about 8:30.

The doctor said his heart entered arrythmia and was not getting enough oxygen and he simply stopped breathing.

The doctor said when this happens there is really nothing they can do.

They tried to revive him, but could not.

The nurse said he passed away peacefully.

Our family got to visit him Sunday for a few hours. He seemed stable at the time, and was trying to adjust his bed when we came in.

I helped him lower the upper part to make him more comfortable.

There was also a tv playing in the room and since the NASCAR race was on he wanted to see it, so I turned it to the race for him.

The family and him did not say much while we were there. One thing he asked about was having enough gas in the car, and how we paid for it, which he often worried about.

Before we arrived he had told the doctor that he wanted to go home.

The doctor wanted him to do therapy to help strengthen his heart, but I felt certain he would not go along with it.

I just called my father's brother to let him know of his brother's death. He said he knew someone was going to die soon because he had been seeing signs. I asked him what kind of signs and he said he had a dream of a casket drifting away, but he couldn't see who was in it so he didn't know who was going to die. He has told me of another experience before where he sensed a death of someone familiar coming soon

This evening my mother and I will be going to the funeral home to make arrangements for the funeral.

We appreciate all of your concern and prayers for us. Although I have been expecting his passing for awhile it is still not easy to deal with when it finally happened. I'm sure you all know what that is like from your own families. 

My father was loved by his family and will be missed. May God forgive my father's sins and comfort him in his loving arms, and remember his name and give him a new, incorruptible body when Jesus returns and restores the creation back to the way he intended it, doing away with all of the death, suffering, crying, and pain we have heaped upon ourselves over the generations due to disobedience to his word and ways. That is the hope I have, that one day all of these troubles will be forgotten and all who love our creator will live again with him in eternal happiness purely out of his grace, mercy, and love for us. He owes us nothing, and we owe him everything, and yet he still burdened himself on the cross for our sakes, taking the death he did not deserve to give us the life that we don't deserve, and so righteous is he forever and ever. Amen