I found out my son was dying the end of March when I received a call telling me he was in the hospital. He had a diseased liver and a transplant was out of the question. He was a teacher and at thirty six years old, my youngest son of two was about to die and there was nothing we could do. Knowing he was about to die was something difficult for me to handle, as it would be for any parent who loved their child. I recalled when he much younger and was going through college, receiving his Masters Degree in Connecticut. To celebrate, his mother and I took him and his wife to Disney World, in Orlando Florida; he was only in his mid twenties at the time. While down there he caught double pneumonia and we did not think we were going to make it back to Georgia in time to get him to the hospital but we did and that is where we learned something about our Health Care system.
I recall taking him to the emergency room at the hospital and when his mother and I went to check him in, what struck me the most was how attentive everyone was when they saw how ill he was. My wife went with him while I checked him in. A doctor was standing there while I gave the administrator his information. It was only moments before the doctor who examined him came out and told me that he would have to be checked in. I told the doctor that he was not covered by any insurance and I was sharply scolded when the doctor looked at me with those stern eyes and said, “I don’t care that he is not covered by insurance, he needs care and he is going to get it. I felt very foolish and saddened that I was thinking of the cost, while the doctor was only concerned about giving our son the medical attention he needed.
I completed filling out the paper work and the lady taking the information told me that as a student, over twenty one years old, he only had to declare that he was an indigent and the state would cover the costs. A bit ashamed, I thanked her for being patient while I fumbled around with the paper work, but managed to get through it. My wife, his wife and I visited him every day until he was well enough to leave and come home. He would go on to become a teacher, none of us knowing in f a few years he would have joined those souls at peace in heaven.
Now I did not think much about it then, but as I watch this congress and President about to screw up what was a system that works, I feel sick about what is about to happen. What I am going to tell you next some will accept as just a nice story, others will discard as an over active imagination of a grieving father. But everything I am about to tell you is the truth and should you believe it or not is irrelevant to me, my wife and I, and thank God my who passed, know that every word is without question factual and the truth. My son passed away May 4th, 2006, but what happened on March 30, 2006, and continued for the next year, is something I’ll never forget or want to.
After receiving the call that my son would soon die, I was, as you can imaging, distraught and in a bit of shock set in. I put the phone down and with tears in my eyes walked around the house for a few moments and then went into the garden. I walked around to the front of the house and sat down on some garden timbers staring straight ahead, in a daze, starting to cry without shame, when what happened next would have an effect on me for the rest of my life. A white dove or pigeon, pure white, something I never saw before around our neighborhood, flew down and sat on the arm of a bench we had set near the road that passed by the side of the house. This beautiful white dove (I’ll call it a dove because that is what I saw in my eyes) hopped off the arm of the bench to the ground and walked along the path from the bench, past me, only a few feet in front of me and up steps to a gate at the top of those steps. The dove just stood there looking at gate, not going through, although it could have easily.
I recall taking him to the emergency room at the hospital and when his mother and I went to check him in, what struck me the most was how attentive everyone was when they saw how ill he was. My wife went with him while I checked him in. A doctor was standing there while I gave the administrator his information. It was only moments before the doctor who examined him came out and told me that he would have to be checked in. I told the doctor that he was not covered by any insurance and I was sharply scolded when the doctor looked at me with those stern eyes and said, “I don’t care that he is not covered by insurance, he needs care and he is going to get it. I felt very foolish and saddened that I was thinking of the cost, while the doctor was only concerned about giving our son the medical attention he needed.
I completed filling out the paper work and the lady taking the information told me that as a student, over twenty one years old, he only had to declare that he was an indigent and the state would cover the costs. A bit ashamed, I thanked her for being patient while I fumbled around with the paper work, but managed to get through it. My wife, his wife and I visited him every day until he was well enough to leave and come home. He would go on to become a teacher, none of us knowing in f a few years he would have joined those souls at peace in heaven.
Now I did not think much about it then, but as I watch this congress and President about to screw up what was a system that works, I feel sick about what is about to happen. What I am going to tell you next some will accept as just a nice story, others will discard as an over active imagination of a grieving father. But everything I am about to tell you is the truth and should you believe it or not is irrelevant to me, my wife and I, and thank God my who passed, know that every word is without question factual and the truth. My son passed away May 4th, 2006, but what happened on March 30, 2006, and continued for the next year, is something I’ll never forget or want to.
After receiving the call that my son would soon die, I was, as you can imaging, distraught and in a bit of shock set in. I put the phone down and with tears in my eyes walked around the house for a few moments and then went into the garden. I walked around to the front of the house and sat down on some garden timbers staring straight ahead, in a daze, starting to cry without shame, when what happened next would have an effect on me for the rest of my life. A white dove or pigeon, pure white, something I never saw before around our neighborhood, flew down and sat on the arm of a bench we had set near the road that passed by the side of the house. This beautiful white dove (I’ll call it a dove because that is what I saw in my eyes) hopped off the arm of the bench to the ground and walked along the path from the bench, past me, only a few feet in front of me and up steps to a gate at the top of those steps. The dove just stood there looking at gate, not going through, although it could have easily.
I watched disbelief as this beautiful white dove waited, turned and came back down and squatted in the ivy in front of me, just on the other side of the path. Somehow, seeing the dove made the pain I was in ease up a little. I got up and went in and got my camera so that I could take a picture of it, if was still there.When I returned, walking very gently so that I would frighten this magnificent creature, I was surprised to find that a second white dove had landed on the arm of the same bench, followed the same path as the first and then squatted next to the other white bird. I did manage to get a photo of the second as it went up to the gate and stared at the gate before it went and sat in the ivy next to the first. I sat back down on the garden timbers, watching the two in amazement when what happened next had to me more than just coincidence. A third pure white dove flew down, sat on the arm of the same bench, hopped down and followed exactly the same path as the others and rested in front of me, with the other two in the ivy, while I just stared at them, thanking God for sending them, I now believe, as my wife does, to ease our pain and comfort us.
I watched them sitting in front of me for a couple of hours, when about four thirty they got up together, walked back up the path they came down, and flew off into the distance until I could see them no more. I was so glad I got a couple of photos as I thought if I had told anyone they would think I was a nut job, but I had the proof and could hardly wait for my wife to get home so I could share what just took place.When Val got home, we talked about our son and prayed that he would be with us for a while. I won’t go into the reliving of the next month as it is not a pleasant way to go and there are those who might read this and have been through what we did and I don’t want to have them return to a time prior to the passing from this world to the next. But I will tell you about the three white doves that came each day at eight o’clock in the morning, leaving at four thirty each afternoon, that is, until the early morning hours of May 4th, when my son passed. I had sent my wife and his brother home the evening of the third, as we knew he would be passing within a few hours, and it was not something I wanted them to witness, and I remained with his wife all night and we were both with him when he left us about six thirty in the morning on the fourth. I called home and my wife and son came out to be with him for the last time before they came to take him. All the arrangements had been made so after spending time with him, we went home to grieve.What happened next is the part that is most difficult to believe, we don’t have to wonder, we were there.
Val went into the house while my oldest son stood in the driveway and I hugged each other as we sobbed. As we stood there, we heard then saw the three white dove flying very fast from around the side of the house, flying in a circle around us, then straight up into the air about a hundred feet or so, then flew a part (like the blue angels do in one of their stunts), joined up gain and flew across the street, landing on top of the pointed roof of the house there, and stayed there all day. We watched them for a period of time, then joined my wife in the house and all cried throughout the rest of the day, as we just lost not only our youngest son, but the father of two beautiful little girls, and the husband to a beautiful young lady, also a teacher, and of course, his “kids” from the school. I was first up, and when I went into den, I noticed the three white doves squatting on the deck, just outside my patio doors, looking in at me. I sat in my recliner and they stayed where they were all day, just looking in on us.
They would remain at our house never to leave again, not for a year. They were so unafraid that eventually one by one was taken by a cat, the last on May 4th, 2007, exactly one year from the day my son left us to join my mother, my wife’s mother, and my brother. The strange thing is, as soon as the last dove was taken, three morning doves came and have been here ever since. Being Roman Catholic, when the three white doves arrived while my son was still here, and he did have the chance to see them, touch them, and knew as we did that they were sent by a caring God that knew my wife and I could never handle our son’s passing. He was far better at accepting his fate than we were. We all, to include my dying son, agreed that we should call the three white doves, the “Father, Son and Holy Ghost”. You know, they just might have been. One thing for sure, they were a part of “My America”, sad, the other America will never understand the significance of the true events I just shared with you. (Check out the photos of the actual doves I wrote about)
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