He's Gone

This is not something I wrote on Facebook...

Monday night, July 12th I couldn't decide if I should go home and sleep or stay at the hospital. The nurse said that if it were her she would go home because he was pretty stable at that point.

Tuesday morning at 1:45 am my phone rant and it was my mom. "You need to get here," she said. I was all ready to go and walked onto his floor and down the hall at 1:55. My sister met me there and said simply, "He's gone."

At 1:40 am the nurse had been in and told my mom he still sounded good. At 1:45 my mom noticed his breathing change. She called the nurse in and the nurse checked and his heart was still beating faintly. He took one more big breath and then just...stopped. At the end it was peaceful - which is what we had all been hoping for. After the struggles of the past week - him being uncomfortable, seizures, snoring, apnea and many other things - at the end he was peaceful. I am very thankful for that.

My mom asked the nurse for a few minutes by herself and when I arrived my sister and I went into the room as well. We played "How Great Thou Art" by the Statler Brothers and said goodbye. He was finally peaceful. But then...my Daddy was gone.