My Uncle Jack passed away at the age of 80 in May of 2009. He was my father’s identical twin. Unfortunately, Jack was born severely mentally handicapped due to a birth injury and spent the rest of his life under the care of my grandmother until her death, and then subsequently in a home for mentally retarded adults in Deland, Florida. After my Dad’s death I became his legal guardian.
Jack unexpectedly developed a severe case of pneumonia. My mother, husband and I flew immediately to Florida to be with him in his final hours. As guardian, I had to make the decision to take him off life support. It’s a terrible position to be in even when you know you haven’t got a choice. My mother couldn’t understand why I was in agony over it when the inevitable was going to happen within the next day or so. All I could think of was, what if he doesn’t go to heaven??? It just suddenly seemed like the weight of the world was on my shoulders.
My mother in her wisdom reassured my over and over not to worry. She was sure Jack was going to heaven. And he would soon be reunited with his whole family, including my father and he would finally be made whole.
So I did what I had to do; then we went to his group home and cleaned out his meager belongings, and flew home. He died that evening.
Some weeks later, we were on our annual vacation in Ocracoke. We rented a boat (like we normally do) and spent an afternoon on a shoal off Portsmouth Island shelling. I went off a ways from my family to look for shells. We often find some really wonderful shells on our shelling expeditions. I decided to play a little game and put God to the test. If Jack really was in Heaven, I asked God to show me a sign and reveal a fabulous shell to add to my collection. I also knew that in His wisdom and my meager faith, He really didn’t have to. As I looked down,combing the shoreline of the shoal looking for anything that might be a sign from God, I heard the kids calling to me from across the little island. “Mom! Come quick! You’ve gotta see this!”
I ran to see what was up. There on the other side of our little shoal island, maybe a hundred yards away, I found my family looking down at the shell of a large sea turtle! It was probably a yard and a half in diameter. It was completely intact and had washed up on the island only recently. I grinned the rest of the day because I knew my God had washed it up just for me and just for fun!!! I said, “OK Lord, You’ve convinced me!”
The next day, as we were lounging on the beach of Ocracoke, I noticed a number of people getting up to look out into the ocean at something. We all got up to look. Something very large and black was heading toward the beach from the ocean. My first thought was, a Whale? We all stood there for about a half hour watching as this huge creature floated toward shore. Someone had called the Park Rangers who immediately arrived. As the creature hit the sandy bottom we all realized what it was. A gigantic leather-back sea turtle that had died out in the ocean was washing ashore right where we were lying on the beach. This turtle weighed about 400 pounds and was estimated by the rangers to be about 75 years old. It took every man on the beach and multiple four wheel drive vehicles to pull it out of the ocean and onto the sand. The park rangers had to haul it off to autopsy it.
What more can I possibly say???? An old and very slow sea turtle washed up where I was lying on the beach???? Two in one week?
My God is so loving and precious and funny and showers His grace upon me every day of my life. What more could I ever ask for? And I know I will be with Uncle Jack in eternity!!!
Jack unexpectedly developed a severe case of pneumonia. My mother, husband and I flew immediately to Florida to be with him in his final hours. As guardian, I had to make the decision to take him off life support. It’s a terrible position to be in even when you know you haven’t got a choice. My mother couldn’t understand why I was in agony over it when the inevitable was going to happen within the next day or so. All I could think of was, what if he doesn’t go to heaven??? It just suddenly seemed like the weight of the world was on my shoulders.
My mother in her wisdom reassured my over and over not to worry. She was sure Jack was going to heaven. And he would soon be reunited with his whole family, including my father and he would finally be made whole.
So I did what I had to do; then we went to his group home and cleaned out his meager belongings, and flew home. He died that evening.
Some weeks later, we were on our annual vacation in Ocracoke. We rented a boat (like we normally do) and spent an afternoon on a shoal off Portsmouth Island shelling. I went off a ways from my family to look for shells. We often find some really wonderful shells on our shelling expeditions. I decided to play a little game and put God to the test. If Jack really was in Heaven, I asked God to show me a sign and reveal a fabulous shell to add to my collection. I also knew that in His wisdom and my meager faith, He really didn’t have to. As I looked down,combing the shoreline of the shoal looking for anything that might be a sign from God, I heard the kids calling to me from across the little island. “Mom! Come quick! You’ve gotta see this!”
I ran to see what was up. There on the other side of our little shoal island, maybe a hundred yards away, I found my family looking down at the shell of a large sea turtle! It was probably a yard and a half in diameter. It was completely intact and had washed up on the island only recently. I grinned the rest of the day because I knew my God had washed it up just for me and just for fun!!! I said, “OK Lord, You’ve convinced me!”
The next day, as we were lounging on the beach of Ocracoke, I noticed a number of people getting up to look out into the ocean at something. We all got up to look. Something very large and black was heading toward the beach from the ocean. My first thought was, a Whale? We all stood there for about a half hour watching as this huge creature floated toward shore. Someone had called the Park Rangers who immediately arrived. As the creature hit the sandy bottom we all realized what it was. A gigantic leather-back sea turtle that had died out in the ocean was washing ashore right where we were lying on the beach. This turtle weighed about 400 pounds and was estimated by the rangers to be about 75 years old. It took every man on the beach and multiple four wheel drive vehicles to pull it out of the ocean and onto the sand. The park rangers had to haul it off to autopsy it.
What more can I possibly say???? An old and very slow sea turtle washed up where I was lying on the beach???? Two in one week?
My God is so loving and precious and funny and showers His grace upon me every day of my life. What more could I ever ask for? And I know I will be with Uncle Jack in eternity!!!
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