The Dead Saints Chronicles: A Zen Journey Through the Christian Afterlife by David Solomon

Author:David Solomon [Solomon, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dead Saints Media
Published: 2016-10-07T07:00:00+00:00

— 15 —

You Do Not Die Alone

~Dream: While staying overnight near Duke University, I dreamed of receiving a call from an old girlfriend who is still alive. We touch hands palm to palm to symbolically say ‘goodbye.’ The following morning, Delynn and I received disappointing news. My brain tumor had more than doubled in size from 11mm to 24mm and there were no real treatment options for which I was willing to subject myself. Driving back from Duke to Virginia Beach with a heavy heart, I received a phone call from Kerry, an ex-employee from my company, Fast Transact. I hadn’t heard from him in four years. Kerry, hearing about my terminal cancer situation, called to walk me through the “Sinners Prayer.” Although I am at peace with my salvation, his call was perfectly timed because I had been debating whether to add a section at the end of chapter 23, called Salvation and Grace. Thank you Kerry for your love and listening to God. I heard you and I thank you. One more wonder ended the day on December 1, 2015: The www.deadsaintschronicles.com website went live at 4pm. (www.deadsaints.org went live February 2, 2016) ~Chronicle 905

The hospital room quietly buzzes with oxygen white noise and the droning beep of heart monitors monitoring Grandma. Her daughter has dozed off, but suddenly awakens, and in the dim morning, light notices a figure standing near the dying person. Startled and frightened, they are frozen in awe. Grandma sees the outline of a woman standing at the end of the bed. A smile sweeps over her face in the last few moments of her life. She whispers to her daughter, “It’s all true!” and then dies.

That moment of clarity, just before death, is a well-known phenomenon described in Chinese tradition called Hui Guang Fan Zhao (The Light returns). 1 This is a commonly reported situation where a dying patient would be comatose or confused, but suddenly becomes alert and lucid, often acknowledging loved ones around him/her before dying.

Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple Computer, passed away in 2011. Just before his passing, his sister reported that, in his last moments, he looked beyond everyone else in the room, and then said, with feeling, “O Wow! O Wow. O Wow,” before he died.2

My wife’s mother Barbara awoke out of her coma, on July 28, Delynn’s birthday. With her eyes closed, she said, “I love you.” They were her mother’s last words before dying a week later. Deathbed visions used to be relatively common because our loved ones died at home. With the advent of modern medicine, many people die heavily sedated in the hospital, with family often separated from the moment of death.

Hospice Care

Many families today, rather than deciding on an institutional setting, are choosing to care for the dying in their own homes with the help of Hospice. Typically, Hospice nurses are called in between six months and six weeks before death. Hospice nurses not only help with medication, but also assist with

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