{"id":6699,"date":"2009-12-13T21:23:20","date_gmt":"2009-12-14T02:23:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/anglicansamizdat.wordpress.com\/?p=6699"},"modified":"2009-12-13T21:23:20","modified_gmt":"2009-12-14T02:23:20","slug":"john-frederick-r-i-p","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/john-frederick-r-i-p\/","title":{"rendered":"John Frederick R. I. P."},"content":{"rendered":"

I have written before<\/a> about the travails of my father-in-law in the nursing home where he was living. Since then, the care has improved dramatically and the staff has been kind and supportive.<\/p>\n

John died last Friday at about 3:45 p.m. The week before, children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren gathered in his room to say goodbye, sing Christmas carols to him and pray. It has been difficult to see a once strong, vigorous man who helped bring up three children, was an artist, built houses and owned businesses, reduced to a helpless shell \u2013 a victim of dementia and crippling arthritis.<\/p>\n

Of the people I have seen die, I have been struck in every case by a sense of wrongness <\/em>in it; it was not what our Creator originally intended and, although he has redeemed us and removed death\u2019s sting through Christ\u2019s atoning sacrifice and resurrection, the feeling of wrongness remains.<\/p>\n

John had been sinking slowly for a long time and during his last 24 hours would take 3 deep breaths and then not breathe for about a minute; at 3:45 p.m. on December 11th<\/sup> he took his last 3 breaths. Although it is a sad time, it is also a happy time since he was a Christian and is now free of the worn out body that was causing him so much pain; in the resurrection he will have a new body that will not wear out.<\/p>\n

Many of us wondered why he lingered on so long; did God have a purpose that we could not see? I fancy John might not have been willing to give in to the wrongness<\/em> of death \u2013 as Dylan Thomas put it, he was raging against the dying of the light:<\/em><\/p>\n

Do not go gentle into that good night,
\nOld age should burn and rave at close of day;
\nRage, rage against the dying of the light.<\/p>\n

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
\nBecause their words had forked no lightning they
\nDo not go gentle into that good night.<\/p>\n

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
\nTheir frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
\nRage, rage against the dying of the light.<\/p>\n

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
\nAnd learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
\nDo not go gentle into that good night.<\/p>\n

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
\nBlind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
\nRage, rage against the dying of the light.<\/p>\n

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
\nCurse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
\nDo not go gentle into that good night.
\nRage, rage against the dying of the light.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have written before about the travails of my father-in-law in the nursing home where he was living. Since then, the care has improved dramatically and the staff has been kind and supportive. John died last Friday at about 3:45 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[711],"class_list":["post-6699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-care-for-the-elderly","tag-dying"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6699\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}