My Dad Passes Away
My father Edison Carl Beck passed away this evening, aged ninety. I will write some of my thoughts tonight and will probably not post again for a few days. I will be busy helping my family make arrangements for his burial. Mom died seven years ago and Dad has looked forward to the day when he would join her. He had five strokes and managed to come back from them all. But there is no return from this.
It was hard sitting beside his bed today, watching his breathing grow shallower and his pulse weaker, but it needed done. It reminded me of the time when my grandfather Beck was dying in the hospital. I sat with him as well. It's not that I'm good at it or like to do it, but rather it was something that needed done.
It was harder saying good-bye to my dad than to my grandfather. The ties that bound my heart to my dad's were stronger. They had nearly sixty-five years to grow and blossom into three children, five grandchildren, and three great-granddaughters.
Sitting in his room people would come and go. We would talk about the living. It made dad's sow progression easier to bear. His Cheyne-Stokes breathing leveled and got slower and his pulse weaker. He passed away about five thirty this p.m.
He can rejoin Mom. Mom had Alzheimer's disease and passed away in 2006. Out of the mental fog of that horrible disease, the last thing I heard her say that made sense was, "Where's Carl. I love him so."
Mom, now you know where he is.