A long-time friend of my 15 year old son spent the night with us on Friday. His father, divorced from his mother for about a year, was supposed to pick him up on Saturday and have dinner with us. Saturday afternoon he called and said he had to fly to Dallas on an emergency business trip. He told us where Jason could find the keys to the house that he had ‘hidden’ for him and that Jason’s mother would pick him up on Sunday.
Jason stayed the extra night, went to church with us on Sunday morning and to a youth group meeting afterward.
His mother and her soon-to-be husband (this weekend is the wedding) came to pick him up yesterday afternoon. She was crying. Jason’s father died in Dallas yesterday. He went to bed Saturday night and never woke up. He was 42 years old.
We of course were all stunned; my son was hit particularly hard as he and my husband had picked up Jason from his father’s house on Friday and all three saw him for the last time together.
Just a reminder to us and to our children how fleeting and precious life is; what we think, do and don’t do matters more than we know. Every word, every action may be our last and may be how we are remembered.
Have we made peace with God? Do we know Him? Do we know for sure what happens when we die? Are our affairs in order, have we said what we need to say? Are we prepared to die in the next 10 minutes?
My husband told me his last words to Jason’s father when they spoke on the phone on Saturday; ‘Happy Trails’.
