Now the rest of the story.
My dad was stable and was responsive. It was very late and he was not a spring chicken. We were planning on driving to Michigan the next weekend to have a birthday party for him and me on the 19th. Dad's birthday is the 23rd.
I spent the night in the room with him and my brother and his wife stayed in one of the waiting rooms. It was a rough night for him with some more pain thrown in. I had to try to keep him in bed as he tried to get out several times. So after driving up there for 10 hours and then up most of the night, Friday was not a good day either. About mid day Friday it was determined that his kidneys were not responding very well. He had lost one for function and the other was only about 2/3 good. The past year or so they had talked about dialysis but never started him on it. So without his kidneys and the fact that his heart was very badly damaged from the attack, the outcome was not good. The nurses were able to stabilize him and keep him pain free and comfortable. The nights in his room still had their moments with him still trying to get up several times during the night. Again, sleep was not a high priority for me that night.
My mom had passed back in ’93 and for the past 13 to 15 years dad had a lady friend that kept him company and they did lots of things together. They went to the Rockport TX area every winter and they were looking forward to this year as well. Dad had said to her late Friday that it doesn’t look good does it… She had to say it didn’t look good. So as of Friday afternoon, the hand writing was on the wall, so to speak.
Saturday was, considering the situation, a VERY GOOD day for dad. We had probably about 30 visitors (relatives and friends) come through his room and he was able to talk to them all and recognized them all as well. He had his oxygen mask on and was not too good at talking, but again, it was a great day. I read the visitation rules posted on the bathroom door in his room and out of the 12 or 15 rules; I think we broke every one of them. The nursing staff was great and was always asking us if there was anything they could do for us.
You see at this point in time he was just 10 days short of his 95th birthday. That’s what the big party was going to be for the next weekend.
Sunday was kept to just my brother, dad lady friend and me. If someone came to the room the nurses would ask if it was okay to let them in. About noon on Sunday dad kind of went into auto pilot and the brain was basically just in survival mode. The breathing was automatic and the blood pressure was just keeping up.
He passed about 10:00 pm Sunday night. I had never been in that situation with a person passing away. It was my brother and one of his sons and my son and me at that time. It was very comforting and surprisingly peaceful.
I guess what I’m going to say next is taken with a grain of salt and really depends on your belief or lack there of, of the afterlife. Earlier Sunday dad was complaining to my brother and I that he was having bad dreams. I asked him what they were. He said that the room was upside down and he was looking down into the room. Then he would wake up and see us there and have a sigh of relief. Then he would fall asleep again and he’d see himself climbing the wall at the foot of the bed. I told him to stop having the bad dreams and only have good dreams. During this time he was probably he was having some rhythm heart issues so I’m not sure if he was gone momentarily or just unconscious.
On Saturday we heard a noise like a weed whacker and several of us looked around and in the next room to see what it was. It turned out that I had just raised the head of my dad’s bed and it was an air bed that auto adjusted for weight and motion etc.
I had to tell this so the next item might make sense to some.
We had turned of the monitor in dad’s room early Sunday because why even have it on, we knew what the end results was going to be. I had called for Jeff, the night nurse, and he said he would be right there. It was the time that dad started to leave us. Jeff came in and said that he was monitoring the screen on the nurse’s station and it was starting to happen. Again, dad was peaceful and in no pain. He had also been in this auto pilot mode all afternoon and evening.
At just maybe 30 seconds or so before the end, the bed air pump came on to adjust for weight, or the lack of it. We had not moved dad at all and I’m sure that it was his soul leaving us that the bed made up for. This again is just my belief and that my mom was there waiting for him to take care of him from now on.
So after almost 95 years and many experiences, like riding his ’28 Flathead from Farwell Michigan all the way down to West Virginia to see his sister, only getting one flat tire and that was in their driveway, to the time he stopped by the Brickyard and shot the chit with guys working on the fencing around the it and them telling him to have fun and take a few laps, he had a great and fulfilled life.
In the past few years I would share my HD books with him and we’d talk many hours about this bike or that bike. He would tell about breaking transmission shafts and having a friend make one up in the machine shop AC Delco in Flint. You did what you had to do back then to keep things going.
I could go on and on about what all he taught me about mechanics etc, but that would just be VERY boring.
So thanks for the happy birthday to me and I’m sharing your thoughts with my dad as he was very much into my restored ’76 FLH and my new SERK.
Sharing his memory with you people lets a bit more of it get easier to talk about and to share. I don’t one of you that wouldn’t have gotten along with him and like him.
So again, thanks and I’ll try to monitor this forum a bit more often. I missed my 250 posts when Hoist acknowledged it way back.
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Topic: Happy Birthday Dan_Lockwood! (Read 821 times)