I watched my grandfather die today

Sorry for your grief. I have watched?been with 5 family members the last 5 years and the transitioning from life to death is an experience no one can really communicate to someone who has not been their.

I wish you peace OP because the burden can be huge from such experiences.

Sorry for your loss, my grandfather died a few months ago. Weeks before he died he started seeing my deceased grandmother and started talking to her in french. He told us she would not speak to him she was mad at him. After she died he married an anna nicola smith wannabee and I'm glad she was mad at him it just proved to me that there is indeed something more and that she had been watching etc.

I am sorry for your loss. I have seen a few people die, to include my mother in 2004. She also died a peaceful death.
I have also seen people die who didn't want to. There is more to the transition than most living people realise.

You never really know what they are thinking sometimes until the very end. I stayed with my Dad the last 48 hours of his life. For the last 24hrs, he was unresponsive. I went to pick up my brother at the airport while my sister watched him. Shortly after I left he went into that short rapid breathing respiration that is the precursor often minutes before death. My sister pleaded with him him to hold on until my brother and I returned. Within less than a minute after returning and saying goodbye,a peaceful look came across his face. Then Dad took just one long last breath.

...sincere condolences to you & your family....

I was with my father when he passed. It really is a privilege to be there.

So sorry for your loss. Hugs to you.

Sorry , I did too and it was awful :(

I had the opportunity to be there when my grandfather left his body around 19 years ago. My whole family was there, touching him. I wouldn't have wanted it any other way. I'm happy that you were able to see this as a positive. Thank you for sharing and helping remind me of my grandfather.

thanks for sharing your experience. sounds like powerful stuff.

i'm not trying to hijack your thread or come off as self centered in any way, but please feel glad that you got to know your grandparent as an adult.

all of my grandparents died within a year of my birth.

both of my grandfathers within a month of my birth.

one of them was in military/naval r&d and pinoeered the development of motor-torpeodo boats used in WW2.

the other literally wrote the book on aviation law.

I have heard so much about these men and feel cheated that I was not able to interact with them as an adult. i have so much respect for their professional endeavours but also I badly needed the structure and stability that having strong grandparents would have provided me (and my parents for that matter)

anyway, I am sorry for your loss. I guess, without making light of it in any way, i'm trying to make you aware that you were of course lucky to know the man at all.

best wishes to you

I understand how you feel. I stayed with my Grandma after the other left. She'd rallied as people came to visit, and then had used up her strength to do so. I felt privileged to wait with her and comfort her, and talk to her, though she'd fallen into a coma. As she struggled a little at the end, I was glad to whisper into her ear, and tell her it was okay to let go. She'd worked hard to support her family, been a Rosie the Riveter, nursed many people into full health, had been a big fund raiser for all kinds of charities, and that it was time to enter the embrace of her Lord. There was still work for her to do in the next realm of existence.

When the rest of my relatives came, they felt distraught at not being there, but I felt happy for her. Sad to lose her, but happy for a new life without pain.

Your grandfather was fortunate to have you there by his side in such strong conscious spiritual awareness.

I witnessed similar pre-death behaviour when my mother passed on 23 years ago. She was very weak and yet she would find this strength to raise her arms to the ceiling and it looked like she was trying to reach up to it, she was babbling and asked me if I could see her father on the ceiling calling and reaching out to her. This happened a few times in her last few days before she slipped into unconsciousness. I too felt very honoured to be there with her. She had made me promise not to look at the shell of her body but to look upwards - I did this and I felt an overwhelming feeling of release and peace from her, she had been in so much physical pain before she died - she wanted to go.

Last Edited by Pharista on 01/22/2012 05:23 PM

I'm truly sorry for your loss, OP. But glad you were able to be there with him til the end.

There is a better world


sorry for your loss

God Bless You and your Grandfather.

Your grandfather watched you watching him after he left his physical body.

Your grandfather still lives but not in his physical body.

One day all who live in physical will experience life in
spiritual

Amen to that

awesome you could be there when he passed. The dying have a valuable truth to pass on to us.

Many to you and thanks for being with your granddad in his last moments. You're a good person

My wife died this past July. She was diagnosed with cancer in the beginning of May. She was so young an beautiful.

I stayed with her in the hospice unit 3 days. She said goodbyes to everyone the first day. My daughter (from my first marriage) flew in the morning of the 3rd day and with her mother came to say goodbye. My wife hadn't spoken since the first day but she was able to open her eyes and smile at my daughter.

After my daughter and her mother left, my wife's sister came to spell me. I went outside to get some fresh air. I was gone 5 minutes. I came back and down the hall could see my wife's sister talking on her cell, finish her call and walk back into the room. I took a couple more steps down the hall and I got a text message. It was from my wife's sister saying, "Come quick, she's going."

I ran down the hall and into the room. My wife's sister was on her knees beside the bed. My wife was not breathing. Her sister said, "My husband called and I stepped out one second to tell him I'd call him later." I stood there in shock.

After about two minutes my wife partially sat up in bed, said, "Yes, yes, I can see it over there. I'm going." She lay back down and said nothing more.

It has been over 6 months and I am still lost.

OP, I am sorry for your loss.

She's okay - it's harder on the living. She's in a good place - know that.

Such amazing truths on this thread.

to all

I'm sorry for your loss, but I am glad you were there to be with him.

I lost my cat the day before Thanksgiving. The previous day, I had taken him to a vet school 3&1/2 hours away for them to do some stuff with him -- they needed to hold him in the hospital overnight. They called me at 5:15am to tell me that something went wrong and that his heart was failing. I was 3&1/2 hours away from him.

I prayed and prayed and prayed that I would make it. I was terrified the vet would call me and tell me that he died while I was on my way to him.

I made it. :-) The last thing he was conscious of was being on my shoulder -- where he belonged.

I know a lot of people would say "he's just a cat", but he meant more to me than what most people do. I don't know what he was thinking there at the end, but I do know he knew I was there and holding him -- and I'm sure that God had him hold on until I made it.

It sounds like a good experience... apart from the loss of course

it reminds me of my grandmother, when she died, after a sickbed like grandfather's, and when she outed her final breath, it was like something escaped her, almost visible, shooting straight up. It was a beautiful thing to witness, and a consolation for losing her.

Sorry for your loss, as you sound like you were very close to him. I knew of several people who saw "someone" come for them right before they passed away. Much love and peace to you during this time. He's begun his new life now in the spirit, free of human confines.

I lost my 15 year old friend a couple years ago and he comes to me in dreams on occasion - recently, this last week.

He was ill, I took him to the vet, he wasn't getting better and then I brought him home. He died on the bed, where he was supposed to be with me and hubby right there with him.

Animals are not children or kin, but they do indeed hold a special place in our hearts. I still miss Tig - greatest cat ever - always knew when I was in pain and did his cat magic to relieve it. I'll never forget him.

:tiglet:

:tigflo:

It seems appropriate to comment a few things here, not necessarily related to the OP's personal experience.

First, it has been heavily propagandized in recent years that "everyone" should rally around a dying person and "be there" when they die.

I do not believe that is what "everyone" desires. I personally do not want to have anyone anywhere around me when I die. I think it is a deeply personal experience. I don't want anyone to see my death, just as I wouldn't want them watching me take a dump. Basically, it's the same thing.

I think watching someone die is virtually always traumatic for the people who actually care about the person and kind of voyeristic for people who don't.

The idea that people actually "choose the time" of their death is another ridiculous and highly propagandaized idea which has absolutely NO BASIS IN FACT.

I guess it's obvious that people would like to believe they "choose," when to go, it makes them feel more powerful, but they do not "choose," God chooses the time of your death. You have nothing to do with it.


People, don't "wait" for people to show up, they don't "wait" for holidays, or birthdays, or weddings, or births, or whatever happy horseshit people like to sling around. They go when they are summoned to go. They don't hold on and you don't have to tell them to let go. Just complete hogwash and bullshit. You're telling them to "let go" is something the ridiculous death squad tells people to do in order to "empower" the watchers and give them a sense of control, and something to do besides staring and waiting.

People used to die peacefully in hospitals. They used to die with I.V's in their arms, and trained, attentive, nursing care, and doctors on call. But, the government decided that that costs waaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyy to much money. So now everyone must go into a hospice and be dehydrated to death, or over medicated to death in the shortest time possible. That's the American way. And, in order to cut down on lawsuits, let's encourage everyone to be a willing participant in the euthenasia by sitting around and cheering on the "letting go" until the person
"decides" it's time. It's just ludicrous.

Thank you for sharing this story and those pictures.

I visited a pet loss grief counselor and she said she used to work with hospice patients. She said a lot of people in semi-comas would sort of wake up in their last hours, and talk to people in the room that only they could see -- typically dead relatives. I had heard of this before. What I had *not* heard of is what she told me next: sometimes, they would talk to long-dead pets. By what the dying person was saying, the family members in the room knew that they were speaking to a pet.

I think if he can make it happen, Tig will be there for you when your time comes...just as Dr. Floyd will be there for me. :-)