Surrounded by Love (Part 2)

The story continues:

The consultant came and spoke to Michael and I, she was very straight honest and took the time to answer all our questions. Apologies to anyone with any medical knowledge, but she told us that there was a big tear in the aorta artery which was leaking blood into the sack around the heart and once that was full, the heart would basically drown and stop.  She confirmed that there was nothing they could do, apart from make her comfortable while we waited the inevitable.

I'd been keeping Nancy up to date with text messages from mums bedside, so once I'd brought Ruth and the kids up to date, I sent her a text. She immediately said that she would share it with the guys at ngm and they would pray for us all.  A short while later, we got a call from Lonnie to say that the car had failed the MOT and that it was going to cost about £500 to get it sorted. We felt that this wasn't something we could really deal with at the time, so I just sent Nancy a quick text to say please pray for wisdom for us. She immediately came back and said that she'd posted on Facebook about our situation and asked for people to pray for us. Within about 5 minutes, I got a message from her to say that a friend of hers was sending £50, then about 15 minutes later I was told that this lady had increased her gift to £100. 5 minutes later another message, that a couple were giving us £50. About 20 minutes later, we were told that a further £100 had been promised and that someone had praying for us and felt they had a word from God for us "be still and know I am God". 

All the time I was receiving these messages, we were all sitting round mums bedside. My phone was in my hand and kept vibrating, I'd have a quick look and pass it to Ruth. It was av really weird feeling, to be in the sad position we were, but to know that a) God cared about everything - including the car & b) that people who didn't even know us, we're willing to just give us money. On receipt of that word, we contacted Lonnie and said give the garage the go ahead to do the work.

A few hours later, we received another message from Nancy to say that someone in Spain had contacted her with a word for us. They'd been praying for us and had been given the very same word  "be still and know I am God".  A nice little reminder, in case we'd forgotten. 

The following morning, I had a text conversation with Nancy while we were on the way to hospital about the whole situation. She promised that when all the ngm staff got together that morning to pray and worship, that they would continue to pray for us all. We felt a sense of peace going into the hospital, knowing that we were loved and cared for! Hey, we had half the money we needed! Well, a couple of hours later, we had another message to say that someone had suggested to the rest of the team that they hold a collection for us and they collected just over £100.

While all this was going on, family and friends were coming and going. Mum seemed to be doing really well, she felt up to a nurse giving her a wash and change of clothes and she asked Ruth to comb her hair and she had some lunch. We popped out to have a bit of lunch ourselves and had just got back on the ward when one of the doctors came to have a chat. He asked mum if she realised how ill she was, she said yes and explained her understanding of the situation. He confirmed what she said was right and he started to say that there was nothing more they could do apart from to make comfortable and he asked her whether she wanted to stay in hospital or if she'd prefer to go home. I was holding her hand and suddenly you could see in her face the realisation that she understood the situation. She said that she had a pain in her chest, my older brother ran off to try and find my younger brother who'd gone out for some lunch. The doctor said he'd be back in a minute and disappeared as well, leaving me holding mums hand, as she died. It was very quick in the end.