John's
Story
In July, 2014 I received a call
from the Probate Court in the
County in which I reside, asking me if I would be guardian for a man
named John, who was living in a nursing home in our County. Over
the years
I have served as guardian for a variety of people in nursing homes who
have no one else who is able or willing to serve as their guardian.
So I drove to the nursing home where
the man was staying to visit him,
and to inform him that I had been asked to be his guardian. I
found him to be well able to communicate, and thoroughly convinced that
he has no need of a guardian in spite of the fact that he was
struggling to breathe due to acute pulmonary disease! I told him
that the doctor at the nursing home, the nursing home staff and the
hospice nurse all agreed that he needed someone to pay his bills, to
manage his assets and to supervise his care. He said gruffly, "I
don't need a guardian!!!!" I said, "But you are not paying your
nursing home bill." He replied, "They don't bring my coffee on
time!!!"
When I finished telling him that I
was going to go ahead with a
guardianship application, I also informed him that an optional service
I offer clients is prayer. A hospice nurse was there in his room,
having just met with him for hospice care. He immediately said,
"I don't believe in God!" I said, "He gets that response all the
time, and He doesn't care. Our faith will fill the gap between
you and Him." He was shocked at such a thought, so when I
held out my hands to hold his hand and the nurse's hand in a prayer
circle, he joined hands with me and her. I prayer for God's best
for John and his family, said "I'll see you later," and left the
nursing home.
When I got back to my office I proceeded to apply for and obtain
appointment as his
guardian. I visited John several times, and found him to be a
cantankerous old cuss who had alienated his former wife and children to
the point that none of them wanted to care for him or his miserable
cat, or even be his
guardian.
I also found that John owned a cat
which was a cantankerous old cuss of
a
cat which the one family member I talked to said was a mean old
cat. The cat was living alone in John's vacated residence.
I contacted the veterinarian who had recently treated the
cat, and the vet described the cat as un-adoptable because it was such
a mean old cat.
About a month later I had occasion to
visit with John as I was in the
area of
his nursing home and stopped by to see how he was doing. When I
arrived at the nursing home the
nurse at the front desk exclaimed, "You're just in time! John is
failing fast, and I am just about to call his daughters to tell them
'If you are going to come, come! Your dad is failing
fast!'. She actually phoned John's daughter while I was there to
tell her
that the time for last visits with her father had apparently
arrived. I went to John's room and found him lying in his bed,
struggling for every breath, and obviously agitated. I asked John
if he
wanted me to pray for him. He shook his head "No". Then I
asked John the most important thing I could think to ask. I asked
him if he knew that he could ask Jesus Christ to come into his heart to
save him from his sins. He just looked at me, then looked
away to the place where one looks when one is thinking deep
thoughts. So I began to quietly pray for John, asking our
heavenly
Father to be merciful to him because Jesus had willingly died for John
and all people, so the price was paid for John's salvation from his
sins.
A nurse had walked with me to John's
room, and had seen John's
condition when I entered his room. She had left to do some chore,
and returned a minute or so later and exclaimed, "What did you
do?!!" I was startled, and said "What do you mean?" She
replied, "He is all peaceful and calm, and we have never seen him
peaceful and calm! That nurse then left John's room to round up
other staffers, saying, "Come see John! He's all peaceful and
calm!!" Then several nurses
came to the door of John's room to see him apparently resting
peacefully. One nurse attached a pulse monitor to John's finger,
and I noticed that it showed that his pulse was 70.
I told the attending nurse, "You are
just in time for the Father George Story
if you are interested in hearing the Father George story. She
said that she had not
heard it, and asked me to tell her the story. As soon as I began to
tell her the story, the resident nursing home physician came into the
room to check on John's condition. In all of my years of serving
residents of that nursing home I had never met that doctor, but I did
that day. He checked John's heart with his stethoscope, but
made no comment. So I proceeded to tell the nurse and the doctor
the Father George Story, and they both responded thankfully that it was
a good story. Then the pulse monitor beeped and showed that
John's pulse had lapsed to zero. The doctor pronounced John dead,
and the nurses spread the word that John had passed away. All
seemed to be amazed that John had died so quickly and peacefully.
The nurse who had phoned John's daughter to come for a final visit
phoned the daughter again to tell her that John had passed away.
I had never been present when a person passed away, and found the
experience to be very peaceful and unemotional.
So, last Thursday was a rather
unusual day. The daughter phoned
me that afternoon to thank me for being with her father when he passed
away. She was comforted to know that her father had not died
alone. I took that opportunity to give her a detailed report of
what had happened and what I had told her dad and had prayed for her
dad, and she was thankful. The next morning John's other daughter
phoned me to also tell me thanks for being with her dad when he passed
away, and I also told her what had happened, and told her the Father
George Story too. She told me that she
had been a caregiver for twenty years, and told me that her experience
was that people who 'had God in their hearts' had the easiest and most
peaceful passing, compared to those who did not have God in their
hearts, whose death was often very traumatic!
I am thankful for this experience and
the reports from the caregivers
who gave me some perspective concerning this event which was unique to
me but not uncommon to many caregivers. And I hope that you, dear
reader, will come away with the knowledge that you too can ask Jesus to
come into your heart and save you from your sins - which may be the
most important transaction in your life!!