How My Grandpa Got to Heaven
In his late nineties my grandfather was having trouble walking. My aunt finally convinced him to show her his legs. Horrified, she discovered he had duct taped wet towels around his calves and ankles which were blistering red and swollen.
The next day Grandpa had a room in at Toronto’s St. Joseph hospital. The doctors said his kidneys had failed. His heart was also so weak they were surprised he was still alive (no less living on his own at 98). They told him he would have to go into a nursing home under 24 hour care.
“No way!” said my grandfather.
And the next morning he died.
I think a week of hospital care had been humiliating enough. The drugs made him think wild animals roamed the hallways of the hospitals. Two of the times I visited him he was so medicated the nurses couldn’t even wake him.
Fortunately it was during the SARS outbreak and a “one visitor a day” rule was in effect. All the better. It meant only those closest to grandpa saw him those last days. The one’s who would remember him as the man who spent the last 30 years of his life completing hundreds of landscape paintings, reading and indexing every National Geographic from 1945, cooking meals from scratch, crafting clay Christmas villages for charitable fund raisers and tending his one acre yard.
And then there was his love of boats. He had many model sailboats he put together with all that intricate rigging. He could talk for hours on the subject, from navigation, to history, to travel destinations.
He spent half his long life working as a bookkeeper for the Canadian Steamship Lines. I think, however, he would have preferred following his father’s footsteps – being a member of a ship’s crew – not confined to land counting invoices and expenses.
His father had sailed many trips from England to the Orient. Returning from one such trip, he stayed at a seaside boarding house for sailors on the Shetland Islands. He asked the landlady’s daughter to go to the circus with him. They had a fun time so he said, “I sail out for China tomorrow. I’ll be back in two years. When I get back will you marry me?”
She agreed and that’s how my grandpa’s parents met.
Marriage and opportunity brought them to Canada where my grandpa’s father ran a school during the winter months, teaching sailors how to navigate. During the summer months he would be on the Great Lakes adjusting compasses.
Grandpa grew up hearing tales of trips to the Orient. But, his father would always warn that a “sea-faring life was no life for a young man” and made sure Grandpa received a proper education and got a “proper” job.
Yet my grandfather spent the rest of his life reading about boats, visiting docked boats at Toronto Harbour and sailing on lakes at summer cottages. He’d often forget he’d already shown me and bring his photo album from a cruise trip he took to Alaska. 90% of the photos were of the ship – very little of Alaska itself.
The day before he passed away I visited him. He was out of ICU and in his own room with an amazing fifth story view of Lake Ontario. It was July. Boats were on the water all day long. He just sat at the window watching the boats and reading a book.
His hearing was almost gone at this point. He did most of the talking – mostly about sailing, art and the lakeside cottage he loved.
Before I left I said, “I’ll see you soon.”
He shook his head, laughing. “Okay,” he said in a disbelieving voice.
I thought he thought I wouldn’t come back to visit him.
The next day, when my father called to say he passed away, I knew it was the other way around. Grandpa had no intention of staying.
After breakfast the next morning the nurse found him lifeless. What she probably missed was his astral form getting out of bed, walking down the hall, taking the elevator to the first floor, strolling out the front door all the way to beaches.
A large sailboat waited for him. He boarded and sailed away.
And that’s how my Grandpa got to heaven.
Namaste,
John C. A. Manley
MetaphysicalSF.com
P.S. If you’d like to increase your chances of living to be 98 like my grandfather, check out Dr. Dean’s Future Health Now! program at… http://getfuturehealthnow.com/freesample (I highly recommend it!)
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About the Author: John C. A. Manley writes writes spiritual science fiction and fantasy novellas. He's been practicing Kriya Yoga since 1996. For three years he lived in in hindu monastery in the mountains of of Southern California. He currently lives in Stratford, Ontario with his wife Nicole, son Jonah and cat Astral. Click here to read more or click here to subscribe to his MetaphysicalSF email column. |