I was able to spend a lot of time with him the last year of his life. He had lost so much weight he looked like a skeleton with skin. It hurt to see him like that.
One night after he had had a really bad day, I went to bed at his apartment because my mother and I were staying with him. As I lay on the bed, I felt a cold breeze run across my body. It lingered for just a few minutes and it was gone. It was not the air conditioner or a fan and the bedroom door was closed. Later that night something woke me and I looked up to see a dim light. In the light were my father, grandfather, grandmother, and great-grandmother looking at me. Then they were gone. All had been dead for many years but I was not afraid.
The next day was the twenty-first anniversary of my father’s death. A friend from Hospice was with us and we stood around the bed and told my brother we would miss him, that we loved him, but it was time for him to let go and join our family on the other side to alleviate his pain and suffering. I told him they were waiting for him.
A few hours later he died a quiet death and for the first time in weeks he had a smile on his face.
