Friday, April 11, 2008

Have you seen death in the face?

I saw it yesterday.

When I found my uncle in my grandma's house, he was already lying down on the floor, motionless, skin as pale as ever, with a blanket covering him..

My sister was at the scene before he died, he was sitting on the toilet bowl struggling to clean himself. His head was hanging to the side, struggling to breathe and he was drooling, not a good sight...we were guessing it was stroke or heart attack, She wasnt sure. The maid and her helped to carry him out to the living room.

She propped him on my knees and prayed and prayed without stopping. She tried to call an ambulance and 911 was no help at all. When my dad finally managed to get an ambulance and arrived at the house, it was 1/2 hour later. The ambulance took another 1/2 hour to come.

She wasn't afraid, just begging God to give my uncle one more chance. Not so much that we can have him around longer, although that would have been really great, but more so that he can make peace with God.

But it was too late. At one point, the maid kept telling her 'he's gone, he's gone, he's not breathing' and she refused to believe it. She kept saying, no he's ok, he's breathing, like she could will him to live.

The paramedics came and started CPR, and she kept thinking...maybe she could have taken him straight to the hospital, if only she knew how to do CPR properly, if this, if that. But she somehow deep down knew it may not have made a difference. Only God knows when is a person's appointed time, my uncle has cheated death before in a drunk driving accident.

People don't like to be told that heaven and hell is real, that God and Jesus is real. But when you look death in the face, I know it's true. And I may never see him again. Forever.

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