We talk about death the enemy, the sting. But if you don't know someone who is dying, you don't know the face of the enemy.
I met two women in their personal last days. both of them young and neither of them going easily into that long good night. That was just last weekend.
At the meeting for field service that morning, my friend asked me to accompany her to the hospital to visit a family friend that she had told me about weeks earlier. She had mentioned the young woman's plight. How this young woman had discovered that cancer that is taking her life. How she is in her prime and successful in life, a woman full of life, an active, vital person. She is a woman gamely fighting her cancer although the doctors have said she is terminal. My friend mentioned that she had occasion to tell this woman about the Kingdom of God and of mankind's future and also bits about the resurrection. But she hadn't had opportunity to give her a full witness to these things. This young woman is really a friend of my friend's sister and my friend doesn't have regular access to her.
This morning she'd been called by her sister and invited to accompany her to the hospital. And so my friend was asking me to support her in this visit. Upon arriving there, I found that I had had no idea of the magnitude of the situation. My friend was really counting on me to be the leader in the bible discussion.
At first, I felt a panic realizing how much responsibility had been thrust on me and that I was unprepared. But Jehovah reminded me to speak from the heart, to tell her my feelings, to tell her the importance of the message that we were bringing her and that it wasn't our message but Jehovah's message. Jehovah guided our tongues and gave us the tongues of the taught ones even in our unpreparedness. I learned quickly that the simplest and most used of scriptures is often the best way to begin. I used Revelation 21:4,5 that we are looking forward to that time when "death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be anymore. The former things have passed away." And Jehovah would be making all things new. "These words are faithful and true." I told her that these words would prove to be a comfort to her if she focused on them. I told her that these words were a comfort to me because ultimately death is a fact of all our lives and this scripture and others have helped me not fear or regret creeping old age, not fear or regret the things I might have done and didn't do or didn't accomplish because the time for doing it has gone. I pointed out to her that an unlimited future with satisfaction is what we are promised. We read Psalm 37:9-11 that "the meek ones themselves will possess the earth." I should have also read verse 29 saying that "they will reside forever upon it" but I think that the message was clear. We spoke and read other scriptures but I hope that the messages of those ones are the ones that stand out in her mind. I am hoping we will visit again.
The visit to the second young woman was also a surprise. I think my friend's sister surprised her with that one while we were at the first. She said there was yet another woman in hospital dying that we were to visit. This young woman was some sort of relation either through marriage or by some sort of godmother connection of my friend's sister. I still don't know the exact connection. Even my friend was not sure who the young woman was until we got to the second hospital. Caribbean family connections can be lybrinthine. Nevertheless, when we arrived we found a very young woman in the ICU hooked up to monitors and tubes with severely swollen legs, unable to move out of bed. The bed moved every few seconds to change the pressure points on her body and to aid her breathing. She also was on a trachial respirator so she could not speak. Despite this she had a face of great beauty and youth with brilliant large hazel colored eyes that followed us everywhere. Her lips were daubed with a salve no doubt to prevent dryness but it gave the appearance of lip gloss and of moisture and health. Even my friend's sister asked her if someone had applied make-up for her.
Here's where we had to learn how to lip-read. The poor young woman kept saying "I want to go home. A casa. A mi casa." In reality, she was on tranquillizers and other medications. She wasn't really lucid although her eyes were brilliant and focused intently on us when we spoke. You could see her lack of comprehension of her situation when her emotions flipped back and forth from smiling and beaming to crying and pleading. She appearently didn't understand that she couldn't be heard since she motioned my friend to come closer so that she could whisper to her. This was a heart breaker. We tried to comfort her and explain that only in the hospital could she be taken care of in her condition. We read to her and reasoned with her that Jehovah wasn't far off from her but very near to give her the strength she needed to endure. She only had to ask and count on him to support her; to look forward to regaining some strength to be with her family again. We held her hands and stroked her. What else could we do?
Later I learned that she was in the hospital because she'd suffered a heart attack due to the stress the cancer was placing on all her organs. She'd refused treatment for a while earlier because she also suffers from schizophrenia. She has two children but was forced to give one up to a family member due to her mental condition. She's only about 29. She made me think of my sister who also suffers from the same mental disease.
The stress of these encounters has followed me through out the week. All the same I want to see at least the first woman again. Her positivity in the face of death was amazing. I don't know how to help the second woman but if I have the opportunity I will visit them both again.
I met two women in their personal last days. both of them young and neither of them going easily into that long good night. That was just last weekend.
At the meeting for field service that morning, my friend asked me to accompany her to the hospital to visit a family friend that she had told me about weeks earlier. She had mentioned the young woman's plight. How this young woman had discovered that cancer that is taking her life. How she is in her prime and successful in life, a woman full of life, an active, vital person. She is a woman gamely fighting her cancer although the doctors have said she is terminal. My friend mentioned that she had occasion to tell this woman about the Kingdom of God and of mankind's future and also bits about the resurrection. But she hadn't had opportunity to give her a full witness to these things. This young woman is really a friend of my friend's sister and my friend doesn't have regular access to her.
This morning she'd been called by her sister and invited to accompany her to the hospital. And so my friend was asking me to support her in this visit. Upon arriving there, I found that I had had no idea of the magnitude of the situation. My friend was really counting on me to be the leader in the bible discussion.
At first, I felt a panic realizing how much responsibility had been thrust on me and that I was unprepared. But Jehovah reminded me to speak from the heart, to tell her my feelings, to tell her the importance of the message that we were bringing her and that it wasn't our message but Jehovah's message. Jehovah guided our tongues and gave us the tongues of the taught ones even in our unpreparedness. I learned quickly that the simplest and most used of scriptures is often the best way to begin. I used Revelation 21:4,5 that we are looking forward to that time when "death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be anymore. The former things have passed away." And Jehovah would be making all things new. "These words are faithful and true." I told her that these words would prove to be a comfort to her if she focused on them. I told her that these words were a comfort to me because ultimately death is a fact of all our lives and this scripture and others have helped me not fear or regret creeping old age, not fear or regret the things I might have done and didn't do or didn't accomplish because the time for doing it has gone. I pointed out to her that an unlimited future with satisfaction is what we are promised. We read Psalm 37:9-11 that "the meek ones themselves will possess the earth." I should have also read verse 29 saying that "they will reside forever upon it" but I think that the message was clear. We spoke and read other scriptures but I hope that the messages of those ones are the ones that stand out in her mind. I am hoping we will visit again.
The visit to the second young woman was also a surprise. I think my friend's sister surprised her with that one while we were at the first. She said there was yet another woman in hospital dying that we were to visit. This young woman was some sort of relation either through marriage or by some sort of godmother connection of my friend's sister. I still don't know the exact connection. Even my friend was not sure who the young woman was until we got to the second hospital. Caribbean family connections can be lybrinthine. Nevertheless, when we arrived we found a very young woman in the ICU hooked up to monitors and tubes with severely swollen legs, unable to move out of bed. The bed moved every few seconds to change the pressure points on her body and to aid her breathing. She also was on a trachial respirator so she could not speak. Despite this she had a face of great beauty and youth with brilliant large hazel colored eyes that followed us everywhere. Her lips were daubed with a salve no doubt to prevent dryness but it gave the appearance of lip gloss and of moisture and health. Even my friend's sister asked her if someone had applied make-up for her.
Here's where we had to learn how to lip-read. The poor young woman kept saying "I want to go home. A casa. A mi casa." In reality, she was on tranquillizers and other medications. She wasn't really lucid although her eyes were brilliant and focused intently on us when we spoke. You could see her lack of comprehension of her situation when her emotions flipped back and forth from smiling and beaming to crying and pleading. She appearently didn't understand that she couldn't be heard since she motioned my friend to come closer so that she could whisper to her. This was a heart breaker. We tried to comfort her and explain that only in the hospital could she be taken care of in her condition. We read to her and reasoned with her that Jehovah wasn't far off from her but very near to give her the strength she needed to endure. She only had to ask and count on him to support her; to look forward to regaining some strength to be with her family again. We held her hands and stroked her. What else could we do?
Later I learned that she was in the hospital because she'd suffered a heart attack due to the stress the cancer was placing on all her organs. She'd refused treatment for a while earlier because she also suffers from schizophrenia. She has two children but was forced to give one up to a family member due to her mental condition. She's only about 29. She made me think of my sister who also suffers from the same mental disease.
The stress of these encounters has followed me through out the week. All the same I want to see at least the first woman again. Her positivity in the face of death was amazing. I don't know how to help the second woman but if I have the opportunity I will visit them both again.
