At 4PM on Sunday May 14, 2006 while sitting at the table having an early dinner with my mother, my father slumped down as if he was picking up a napkin off the floor. My mom said he "floated down to the floor". By the time she got to his side she could tell that he was already gone. Almost immediately she began calling all of her sons and urging them to rush over the hill.
My mom says they had a wonderful day. They had planned on going over the hill to visit some of the kids for Mother's Day but decided against it at the last minute. They had gone to Mass on Saturday night and were just taking it easy on Sunday. Dad had given my mom a very sweet Mother's Day note to the mother of his children and had ridden the "Health Rider" doing a 100 repetitions. He told my mom it made his legs feel great.
Mom looked through the fridge and then the freezer and found a nice piece of steak, and although my father RARELY ate red meat they decided it would be a nice treat on this lazy afternoon. Mom says they were having a great time, laughing at themselves and purely enjoying their life together. Then, it was all over.
My mom said he died wonderfully, "You did a good job Fenwick" she was saying when we arrived about an hour later and just minutes after the paramedics had pronounced him dead at 5PM. My mom was so pleased that he didn't die in pain or over a long period of time. She was also very pleased that they had not chosen to be on the road. It was a very peaceful and dignified way to die, minus the tubes, needles and monitors of a hospital.
Earlier on Sunday my mom had received a daily email that she gets and while seated in his favorite chair in my moms Art Room/Office she read to him from the writer, Henri Nouwen, Daily Meditation. On that morning it read this...
"Praying to Die Well
"Many people say, "I am not afraid of death, but I am afraid of dying." This is quite understandable, since dying often means illness, pain, dependency, and loneliness.
"The fear of dying is nothing to be ashamed of. It is the most human of all human fears. Jesus himself entered into that fear. In his anguish "sweat fell to the ground like great drops of blood" (Luke 22:44). How must we deal with our fear of dying? Like Jesus we must pray that we may receive special strength to make the great passage to new life. Then we can trust that God will send us an angel to comfort us, as he sent an angel to Jesus."
How appropriate.