It is a very happy day today.  Today, a very good family friend went home to be with the Lord. 

Many are probably thinking, what an odd thing to say - to say that you are happy for someone to die.  But honestly, it should be a celebration.  He is no longer suffering and he truly is in a better place. 

Late May / early June, he started to go downhill.  I remember a close friend asking him if he was feeling okay.  He was a little unsteady on his feet and his eyes looked vacant.  He couldn't remember asking something he had literally asked 30 seconds before.  He claimed he was fine and that he hadn't slept well the night before, but honestly, I think he was just embarrassed.

That afternoon, he fell down the stairs and had been in the hospital ever since.  At first, the doctors found out there was too much fluid in the brain, so they put in a shunt to drain liquid.  Things seemed to improve and they moved him into a rehabilitation center, but within a week or two, he was back in the hospital.  They did all sorts of testing but couldn't figure out what was going on. 

Finally, they came to a conclusion.  He died from something that is very similar to mad cow disease for humans.  The proteins in his body ate away at his brain.   It is very, very rare.  They say it is one in at least a million and within the last 3 years, two men from the church I belong to have passed away from it.

 Last week he went in to a coma, and finally, this morning, he passed away.  He waited until he was able to say goodbye to his family, and then went home to be with the Lord.

R.I.P Bill.
1928 - 2007

On a lighter note:

I took B, the boy I babysit, into church with me this morning so I could be there to let people in if they needed to be let in.  We were only supposed to be there until 11, when K was supposed to come in.  She is in charge of all of Vacation Bible School, so really she should have been in there the entire time.  But, of course, she wasn't.

So, 11 rolled around and K hadn't shown up.  So, I called to check in with someone else and see if they heard that she was coming in at a different time, and I guess K had told them she would be in at 1 p.m.  So, I went to pick up E, the girl I babysit, and we headed back to the church to wait until 1 p.m.  But, 1 p.m. rolled around and K still wasn't there.  I kept telling the kids we would be going home soon but soon turned into an hour and a half.

So, at 2:30, we made it home.  Then, at 4, it was back off to church for Vacation Bible School.  It went fairly well though, seeing the poor planning we had going on.  We had 8 kids in my class and had $12 for offering, which was pretty good because we hadn't prepared the kids for that. 

It was pretty exciting to see so many people in the church and so many kids excited to be there.  I really hope that everything will be successful.  The planning has been very disorganized and stressful, I just pray that it doesn't leak into the week and into the teachers demeanors.  It's time to put it all behind and focus on the whole purpose of Vacation Bible School.

It will be a fun week of 15 hour days.  :-]