Journey to Heaven

The day I lost Larry was as normal a morning as could be. We had breakfast together; we never got to have lunch because we were in our local hospital’s ER. At first, I was told that Larry didn’t have a heart attack. Thank you, Lord! Sweet neighbors, the Waddills, came up to check on Larry and me. I told them that it looked like Larry was going to be okay; perhaps he just pulled some muscles when he carried those heavy boxes of pecans earlier. I called Nick, as he was about to leave his job 40 minutes away and come to the hospital, and told him not to, that Dad didn’t have a heart attack after all. Then I was told that he had a little heart attack. It seemed like forever that I had to stay out in the hall. The door to Larry’s room was closed. I stood there all alone for a long time, then one of Larry’s fishing & golfing buddies, Corky, felt led to come up to the hospital to check on us. God knew I needed him to be there with me. A hospital liaison woman stood beside us for a while. I finally asked her if she would please go into Larry’s room to see what was happening. When she opened his door, they were performing CPR on him!!! I had no idea that things were going south so fast! After a while, a nurse came out and told me to get to Parkland Hospital in Dallas as quickly as possible; Larry was in critical condition; the helicopter crew was there. When she went back inside Larry’s room and closed the door, something told me not to leave right then. Corky and I waited and waited. Finally, the door opened, and everyone, including the helicopter crew, came out; it looked like all of them had been crying. That is when I knew Larry didn’t make it. I remember saying, “No! No! No!” many times, then telling Corky, “I was supposed to get him saved first!”