My Heart Is Heavy & Grieving
 

I have a friend that I have known since I was 10. He was 42 and he lost his son at the age of 4 in 1964. I was his paperboy and I lost my dad when I was 4 and because I was in a dysfunctional family with an alcoholic mom, he and his wife befriended me.
I would go over to thier house for dinner, we would go to mcdonalds, he taught me how to drive, and when he and his wife separated in 1979 we remained good friends.

In the end of September I tried to call him to wish him a Happy 76th Birthday.
I couldn't reach him & that was unusual.
I called his wife and she said that he collapsed with some type of seizure & lay on the floor for three or four days until he was found.
When he got to the hospital his heart stopped & they restarted it, and he was alive at least with some cognizance of what was going on, but not able to communicate.

He was getting ready for going into a nursing home but took sick Sunday night and went downhill quickly.

The hospital told me he passed away at 12 noon today.

Ron,

I am sorry to hear about your friend. I will pray for the Comforter to come and wrap you tight in His arms right now and bring you peace.

{{{hugs}}}}

Margie

Thanks, while I am grateful that he was a good friend for a long time, I do know that he was not at all open to God and was an avowed atheist.

I think that is what hurts the most.

Ouch. That is painful. But you know, we never really know what decisions someone makes in the very last minutes of their lives. Sometimes we have to hold onto the hope that he had a change of heart. Maybe he did, maybe he didn't. But if you did all you could do to show him the love of God, the rest is between him and God. Let's just pray that he was like the thief on the cross and saw Jesus in the last few minutes.

OH wow talk about HEART wrenching! I am so sorry for you brother, my condolences to you, and to that family.

THis must be a day for that I tell ya.
Just found out a while ago someone we knew over here committed suicide.
:tissue
YES! Long story but I'd spoken of this sometime back probably not on this forum but another and this mans daughter had recently died of drug overdose.
SHe was only like 26, had had a rough life, was born deformed, poor thing had trouble coping with that, *can you imagine* turned to drugs, she was trying to overcome heroin addiction, sought GOD briefly was baptized in "the titles" even after my and other sisters attempts to get her in JESUSname, she was confused. *sigh*

It turns out that he had taken her car away from her, (she got into some kind of trbl I guess) and she could NOT get to her daily clinic appt'mt (methadone) so she caught a ride with some mean sleazy characters who gave her something or injected her with something, not sure of details but she overdosed and died a couple days later.

Evidently the guilt of taking her car away finally caught up to him., dying without JESUS is the worst! This was my sisfriends exhusband, and its no doubt killin her, two deaths in a short time, pls pray for sisNorma., she is devastated yet again.

OH LORD how dark this world can be.

May God give you the strength & the confort you need right now.

Ron, i am so sorry for this loss. I will be praying for you my friend.

My the Comfortor be here for you right now.

Ron, I also am praying for you during this time of sorrow.

What a wonderful tribute to your friend just posting on here for us to read how he befriended you and showed you a positive male role model when you were a young boy.

As hard as it is to do in these typ situations we have to not dwell on the things we can't control and just trust in a just God.

That is so sad.
My heart goes out to you and your family.

Oh, if only people would live for God!

Thanks!

Thanks Ferd!

Congrats on your new addition!:horn

Thanks CC1, yes he was a good friend when I needed one and aside from being a devout atheist, he was decent guy!

Ron may the God of all comfort manifest Himself to you in your time of hurt.

Ron,

I know that the passing of this man who in many ways was your foster father must have been a very hard thing to have experience. I just wanted you to know that you were in my thoughts and prayers. Hang in there, buddy.

So sorry Ron I remember you posting before about his being sick and almost dying before...and how important he was to you....

Sorry to hear this, Bro Ron. May God who knows exactly how to comfort his grieving children sweep over your soul tonight and give you the peace and rest that you need to get thru this. He is our Peace!

I was just thinking today how that this time of year it is not hard at all to think about situations and people who will not have a Merry Christmas. Not necessarily because of the lack of money but because life has been so horribly cruel to them. Just reading of some of the situations on this forum, one realizes you don't have to look far at all. God bless you and I pray for his comfort and peace in your life.

So sorry Brother.

I'm so sorry for your loss Ron. Prayers have gone up for you....

Ron that is powerful for you to have such a love. I sincerely will continue as always to pray for you.... You are on my life list of prayer friends....

Nathan Eckstadt

Ron, I'm sorry for the loss you've suffered. You're in my thoughts and prayers.

Thanks so much for taking time to comment on this, I know that it may not have been the proper thing to do since it was someone else's thread,but one that would undoubtedly be read a lot, I'm not fond of making new threads, so I slipped this in as a thought similar to a loss as Ron is going through., not expecting that anyone would respond to it, thanks that YOU are so kind as to, I feel for broROn too, its so hard to lose a long time friend.
I'm sorry to brRON or anyone who undoubtedly thought badly of my including this other situation in, but I simply asked for prayer only anyways, I'm off to go see her again, now. ;) COunting my own blessings.

Ron and SimplyMe, I am so sorry for your loss. I have experience that loss myself recently and I know what you are going through.

God is so good to give us strength!

I will be praying!

Aww...that's sad. God be with you and his family.

Thank you all for your kind words & prayers-it is appreciated and I am grateful!
I am going to ask my boss today to be able top leave a couple of hours early on Wednesday.
The funeral is at 3:30 and is being held in Maple Ridge (suburb of Vancouver) and his wife has asked me to speak something at the funeral.

Pray that it all works out.
Below his obituary.

http://www.asimas.com/ASIMAS/gardenh...ased_id=144451

Welll, went to the funeral yesterday. I and my wife got out of work early & got our kids out of school & we headed out---and got stuck in a traffic jam!

Didn't get to the funeral until after it was over--sigh!

Oh no! that is really too bad!!-I assume you got to participate in the parting view and graveside ceremony

That happend to me but it was for a funeral. I flew 3000 miles and we had FL delays.