Soo Bahk Do, Another Day With My Family: And My Father's Dying

Another day's just about over. My wife, #3 daughter, and son went to Soo Bahk Do class this evening and returned in good spirits.

On a less chipper note, we learned this morning that my father is unresponsive: he doesn't respond to touch, and appears to be unconscious. Also, circulation in the outer parts of his arms and legs appears to be much less than before.

Odds are that he'll die in a matter of hours or days. Weeks? Probably not.

Happily, #2 daughter and my son-in-law are just a few miles away from him, up in the Red River Valley of the North. That's a comfort.

I would like to be up there, but there are logistic considerations - and family here to consider, too.

I understand and accept that death is the only way we can reasonably expect our lives to end: but that doesn't mean that I feel good about it.

I ran across a couple of prayers in "The Catholic prayerbook: from Downside Abbey," David Foster, T&T Clark Ltd (1999):

"O Lord, you have made us very small, and we bring our years to an end like a tale that is told; help us to remember that beyond our brief day is the eternity of your love.
"Reinhold Niebuhr"

"Grant, Lord, that we may not set our mind on earthly things but love the things of heaven; and that even now, while we are placed among things that are passing away, we may cleave to the things that shall abide; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
"Leonine Sarcramentary"

Background:

• "Signs and Symptoms of Approaching Death"
  Hospice Patients Alliance