Safe Passage from Death to Life
Lying there in the hospice bed, his breath rattling in synchronicity with each rising and falling of his chest cavity was my husband, almost four years ago. I held his hand and started to pray the holy rosary. I noticed the clock on the wall stamping 6:00 am in my memory. After some time, I wanted to stop praying but something told me that things will be okay; that I should continue to pray until 9:00 am. And so I continued with the rosary - one mystery after the other, over and over again. A few minutes before 9 am, my cellphone rang and it was my husband's oldest daughter Yama.
Compelled to squeeze in as much time as there was left, I prompted Yama to talk to her dad while I held the phone close to his ear. As soon as Yama expressed her love for her dad and said her good-byes, I noticed that his breathing had become softer and the rattling noise faded gently into the background. I called the nurse and she said that my husband's heart was slowing down as was his pulse and he was in the process of dying. I looked up at the clock on the wall. It was exactly 9:00 am when he breathed his last breath on earth.
I am comforted by the thought that at the end of his life, my husband did not die alone. He was accompanied by prayers and love from his family. He was able to hear his oldest daughter's voice and he carried that love with him. I was there holding his hand until he moved on to his eternal dwelling place.
I wondered if I would have the same blessing and I believe more than ever that at life's end on earth, there is nothing to fear with embracing eternity. Without the undeniable proof of science but with much faith, I hear the same story about death and dying from others. Here is affirmation from this hospice doctor's anecdotal account of the many patients at death's door he saw over ten years. His accounting albeit without the cynicism and doubting of empirical evidence is a testimony of uncontested factual observation and experience from the mouths of his patients.
Lord, God I pray for a happy death in the last moments of my life. A happy death is one filled with hopeful anticipation for the new life you promised in the company of angels and saints, a safe passage as I transcend the earthly confines of this journey to await an eternal home that you prepared for those who believe, trust, and hope in you.