On Saturday, May 14th, 2005, my mom and I were sitting in her room talking while she was preparing her lesson for Children's Church and I was folding clothes. I noticed that I was missing some clothes, so I went to check the washer and dryer.
Upon my return, I noticed that my mom's head was tilted back and her eyes were at the top of her head. I shook her to try to get her to respond. Once I didn't get a response, I immediately ran into the other room to call 911. I was on the phone with the 911 operator while trying to perform CPR until help arrived. The policemen beat the EMT Workers there. They immediately put me out of the room and started working on her for what seemed like hours. Finally the EMT Workers arrived and took over. I was standing on the porch making phone calls trying to find someone to come over to be with me. I couldn't find anyone! Once the EMT Workers got her stabilized, they took her to the hospital. I wasn't allowed in the ambulance, so I followed them to the hospital crying all the way. My dad passed me on the other side of the road heading to the house. He noticed me and made a U-turn in the middle of the street to follow me. He was trying to get me to pull over and get in the car with him, but I wouldn't stop.
When I arrived at the hospital, seconds turned into minutes and minutes into hours. That was by far the longest evening of my life! The further it got into the night, family and friends started to arrive and stayed there with me until I left. After hours of waiting, the doctor came out to see us. We finally found out what happened...she had a massive heart attack. We were finally allowed to go in to see her. She was laying there looking as though she had fallen asleep. Members of my family and I stayed in there with her for a few minutes when all of a sudden, I flew to the restroom. I got in there and immediately asked God to help me and to give me peace. I told Him that if He didn't help me, I would lose my mind. But of course, He knew that already because He was way ahead of me. I felt a calming and peaceful sensation come over me for a moment. I know that the people near me that were paying attention must have thought I had a weak bladder, because I kept going to the restroom, but I was in the restroom talking to my "Daddy." After a couple more hours of waiting, we all went home to try to get some rest and prepare for church the next day.
Mom made it through the night, but the next morning during church, I received a phone call from the hospital saying that I needed to get there immediately and call the family in. It was at that moment that reality hit, and I realized that yesterday was the last day that I had with my mom here on Earth. When I arrived at the hospital, the doctor came out to talk to me and asked whether or not I wanted to revive my mom if she arrested again. I asked the doctor how much was she breathing on her own. He said very little. I told her no, don't revive her because my mom was too vibrant and wouldn't want to live on a machine. It appeared as though my mom was just waiting on me to say that it was okay…she departed this life at 10:55 a.m. on Sunday, May 15th. The doctor came out to let me know that she had passed. There was a gentleman with her that asked me if I wanted to donate her organs, tissue, valves and skin for graphs. Without hesitation, I said YES!! My mom loved helping people, and the thought that she would continue to help people from the grave just warmed my heart.
By His Grace...
