A few months ago my wife was working at Madison's Hospice center. There was an older lady in her late 80's who had been admitted and had only days to live. Her husband came to visit (I am sure he came several times a day) and the two of them went out onto their private patio. About 15-20 minutes later one of the nurses came into check on her and found them both outside at their small table, holding hands, and dead. HE died of a heart attack (even though he gave no outward signs of discomfort) and she died of whatever it was that she was dying from.
People marveled at how peaceful they looked holding hands there, and how "calm" the room was, and how their seemed to be angels surrounding their bodied.
Not bad for a NON-apostolic couple!
But this, and a few other incidents, really stand out to the staff who work there.
Wow what an amazing story-I often wonder if things like this really happen-sounds like they do.
Christians, particularly apostolics, seem to think that they have all this stuff figured out. But another story (happened before my wife started) was of a lady who was talking to her children. She was near death but having a lucid moment. All of a sudden she matter-of-factly looked at the patio door and said "Ok, <name of close relative>, I'm ready to go." she said with a smile. Within seconds she closed her eyes and died peacefully. A few seconds later the patio door, which was locked, unlocked and opened up. According to the family members (and nurse/nuns there) they could all sense the presence leave the bed, and leave through the door.
Stories like these are probably why most people who work at a hospice center all seem to enjoy it. While it can be VERY stressful it keeps you in a perpetual state of wonderment over life, the afterlife, and all things spiritual. Probably far more then living in a church!
I've worked hospice care before. I've seen a lot of things that are just phenomenal. Things that have sculpted my beliefs on the afterlife and things that happen during transition. It's awesome.
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I've gone and done it now! I'm on Facebook!!!
It is simply not the cozy little world that many Christians have created where "the body dies and the soul appears instantly in heaven or hell and any other 'phenomona' is obviously demonic".
I believe our understanding of the nature of the afterlife, spirit realm, and the soul is about as good as a cave mans understanding of my PC running Duel Core AMD, 2.5 Gig, Windows XP Pro, and how to write a VB script to add new user accounts from an Excel document!
In other words, NO understand.
Christians, particularly apostolics, seem to think that they have all this stuff figured out. But another story (happened before my wife started) was of a lady who was talking to her children. She was near death but having a lucid moment. All of a sudden she matter-of-factly looked at the patio door and said "Ok, <name of close relative>, I'm ready to go." she said with a smile. Within seconds she closed her eyes and died peacefully. A few seconds later the patio door, which was locked, unlocked and opened up. According to the family members (and nurse/nuns there) they could all sense the presence leave the bed, and leave through the door.
Stories like these are probably why most people who work at a hospice center all seem to enjoy it. While it can be VERY stressful it keeps you in a perpetual state of wonderment over life, the afterlife, and all things spiritual. Probably far more then living in a church!
I have had a nurse tell me a similar story (without the door opening though) and a women seconds before death say her husband's name and then say "oh you have come for me" and with that she died.
I really didn't know what to think of it.
But I agree, we are very limited on our understanding what actually happens when we die-I have heard so many different stories. It seems it's different for everyone.
Oh the other hand, the man I called grandpa literally just went off the deep end with sin, sounds bizarre for an 80 yr old man-but when my grandmother died he turned into another person.
So hours before he died those around him noted that he was combatant and was fighting with imaginary foes around him.
When asked Lloyd said "I am fighting demons, they are coming after me-" and he died not long after that. Not a pleasant departure.
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