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A
Going Home Celebration
A lot of people have written the story of their
life, well I want to write the story of my dad, Harold Poling’s
death. Because the way you live and the things you accomplish
in life are important, but the ultimate is how you are when
you die. You see, my dad did not die an ordinary death.
My dad had the most interesting and blessed death I have
ever witnessed or even heard of Let me tell you about it .
I have to go back a little ways to explain how all of this
came about and how God has had his hand in this whole situation.
Early this year he was in Parkview Hospital for several
days. when he knew he was being dismissed, I was with him
and he told me he wanted to go back home to West Virginia
as soon as he got his strength up. I asked why. This was
his reply. I want to go back back home one more time because
come the end of this year, I will not be here.’ He
did not speak with fear, but with a firm assurance. Because
of the confidence he spoke with, I was not afraid. But,
I knew he was right.
He became very ill and again was hospitalized in February.
He was admitted into CCU with an infection throughout his
body. Hi s blood pressure dropped rapidly and his temperature
was very high. He was treated for the infection and, after
several days, began to improve.
He was then transferred from Parkview Hospital to the Rehab
Hospital for therapy. They were working to build his strength
before going home. The night he was admitted into Rehab,
Michelle and Roger were with him. He cried and told them
how blessed he was with all his children and grandchildren.
He said he knew how sick he was. Michelle told him how blessed
we are to have him and mom. And how thankful we are for
him being strong enough to bounce back. He told Michelle
he would never be able to “bounce back” like that
again.
After several days in Rehab, he began to talk what we might
say “Out of his head”. He had conversations with
some of his family members who are deceased. We didn’t
realize it then, but we now feel that in his mind, he went
back home to West Virginia. He held conversations with friends
and family as if they were right in the room with him. It
seemed funny to us at times, but, we now really believe
he did as he had said about going back home one more time.
God knew that was something dad really wanted to do but
was not able to. So, he allowed him to feel in his mind
as if he was back home. The last time I was at the Rehab
Center, dad told me he was not 'coming back’ this time.
I immediately remembered what he had told Michelle several
days earlier.
Over the next few days dad kept getting worse and slipped
farther into a state of confusion and incoherence. By the
end of the week, he became very disturbed and began to try
to get out of bed. He was saying things that did not make
any sense and grabbed for things that were not there. It
became very hard for my mom to see him in this state, but
she kept right on praying and asking God to take care of
dad. His sister Sharon was right by my mom’s side the
whole time. She stayed with Mom and Dad and comforted her.
She kept reassuring dad too that everything was going to
be all right. She has been a real strength to all of us.
The confusing time for dad began on Tuesday. On Friday
night, dad began to struggle tremendously. Michelle. Darrin,
Mom and Aunt Sharon all stayed with dad to try and keep
him calm. I spoke with mom on the phone at 2:00 am. She
told me dad had been transferred back to Parkview and was
having a very hard time. I asked her to give him the phone
so I could pray for him. When she held the phone to his
ear, he did not know who I was and the whole time I prayed
I could hear him struggling. I felt this was Satan tormenting
his mind.
When I hung up the phone, I began to rebuke Satan as if
he were there in the room with me. I reminded him that dad
was not his child, that my dad belongs to God. I told him
how he had tried to attack my dad's mind because he could
not conquer him through sickness. I told him that when dad
was diagnosed with leukemia he (Satan) only gave him 3 to
4 years to live, but that God had already given him 7 (Gods
perfect number). I reminded him of how wimpy he is to attack
someone’s mind when they are weak and cannot fight
back.
I then knelt down beside my bed and began to pray for dad.
I asked God to go into my dad’s room and comfort him
and, before I knew it, I was speaking in tongues in a very
soothing way and stroking the bed as if I were there with
my dad comforting him. I felt the Spirit of God was doing
just that. I then began to speak in tongues in a way of
rebuke, as if in the Spirit I was talking directly to Satan,
telling him to flee from my dad’s room. After awhile
I felt a peace come into my room and I knew dad would be
O.K. I began to sing in tongues. I kept singing “Peace,
Peace wonderful peace coming down from the Father above.”
When I was able to relax and rest I noticed that it was
after 4:30 a.m.
The next morning I felt an urgency to call Brother Gutierrez
and have him go to the hospital and pray for dad. He had
spoken with dad before of how he felt Satan had cursed our
family with sickness. Later I was talking with Cindy on
the phone and told her what had happened to me in the night.
She said she woke up at 5:00 a.m. praying for dad, also
feeling like it was an attack of Satan on his mind. She
said she phoned the hospital and told mom and the others
to gather around dad’s bed and sing Peace, Peace wonderful
peace coming down from the Father above.” The same
song I was singing in prayer just a little while earlier!
This was our first confirmation that God had His hand on
dad.
When I arrived at the hospital at 10:30 am., mom told me
dad had fallen asleep after 5:00, and was resting peacefully.
Soon his blood pressure began to drop again and he was moved
back to CCU. We were told the infection was prevalent in
his body and his immune system was not able to fight it
off. He was put on very strong antibiotics and on a respirator.
The respirator was necessary because the medications they
were giving him would cause him to relax and not breath
on his own. Dad then went into a coma. He remained in the
coma for 7 days (God’s number). During this time, we
were given many signs and assurances from God that everything
was in His hands. The nurses would come into his room and
talk about the peace (there’s that word again) they
felt in there. One nurse said he had been in his profession
23 years and witnessed many different situations with illness,
but had never felt such a peace in a patient’s room
or seen so much support from family and friends as was shown
to dad. Another nurse kept coming into the room as we were
singing to dad or praying for him and would hug us and cry
with us. One of her co-workers reminded her that they were
not supposed to get personal and show emotion to the patients
families. I told her she had not lost any of her professionalism.
I assured her that it was not just sympathy for dad and
his family she was feeling, but that it was the Spirit of
God. She agreed with me. What a witness to have a nurse
come into dad’s room and feel the power of God! We
continued to sing and talk with dad about God being with
him through this sickness the whole week We prayed for God
to do His will, but to do a quick work for dad.
Darrin and I spent several nights there with dad because
we wanted him to have constant contact with his loved ones.
Mom and Aunt Sharon were there for long hours daily. The
other family members also spent time with dad to reassure
him that God was taking care of him. Mom stayed very strong,
I am so proud of her.
I stayed the first night he was in the coma because Darrin,
Michelle, Mom and Aunt Sharon had stayed the night before.
After everyone left I sat and held dad’s hand and talked
with him for awhile. Suddenly in comes Doyle and Nancy Cornett.
Doyle sings bass for the Gospel Echoes and my dad loves
that group and thinks no one can sing bass like Doyle. I
asked Doyle to sing for my dad. I thought it was so neat
that God cares enough about us that even at our weakest
moment (which is where dad was), He would send someone along
that he loves to hear and allow them to sing to him. Doyle
sang “Buelah Land”. After they left, I was really
encouraged because of the awesomeness of God. I talked with
dad about how God had sent Doyle along because he knows
how much he enjoys his singing. I then began to sing “Angels
watching over me” After about 2 hours, I told dad we
had sang long enough and that I would read some scriptures
to him. I opened the bible to Psalms 91 and read. After
a few moments I came to verse 11 which says “He will
give His angels charge over you... .~ I just laughed out
loud and told dad, "you see how good God is, we were
just singing about angels and God gives us this scripture.”
At about 11:30 p.m., I began to get a little lonely and
in my mind I told God it would be nice if someone came along
that I could talk to. At midnight I was praying for dad
and in came Darrin’s friends Jerry and Scott. Who would
have expected someone to come into the hospital at midnight
to visit a patient? I knew then that God had heard my prayer.
We talked for over an hour about God and His blessings.
It is so great how God takes care of everything. Not only
was He taking care of dad, but, He sent someone at a weak
time for me to give me encouragement.
Sunday morning Paul and Cyndi Peconge came. I teased Paul
and told him his ticket out of the room was that he had
to sing for dad. He sang “Beulah Land”!!! The
same song Doyle sang the night before! Isn’t God good?
Mom called me that morning, she was so excited. Aunt Sharon
had opened dad’s bible at home and dad had placed the
marker on Psalms 91. The very scriptures I read to dad the
night before! This was another confirmation. Later that
day, Brother Steve Halsey came to pray for dad, he told
dad God had angels watching over him - another confirmation.
On Friday morning they called the family to the hospital
because dad was not doing good. His temp was 104.9 and they
could not get it down. The infection had gone to his brain
and the doctors informed us there was no hope. They told
mom it was out of their hands and was no longer a medical
decision, but a moral one. We had a family meeting and decided
to take dad off the respirator and let God have his way.
They took everything off dad except oxygen and the heart
monitor. It is so awesome that after they took dad off the
medications and respirator, his temp instantly came down
and his body cooled off. This in itself was a miracle. God
knows dad does not like being hot and he allowed him to
be comfortable. Dad also began to regain consciousness and
became more a$er4. He opened his eyes at different times,
cried, squeezed our hands, nodded his head. and tried to
speak. It is amazing to me because during this time, the
nurse was giving him morphine every few minutes, because
she knew he was going to die and wanted to minimize his
pain. God worked beyond the drug and allowed dad to respond
as a reassurance to both himself and the whole family that
God had His hand on him and dad was all right. Brother Gutierrez
told mom on the phone that God had spoken to him and told
him there is life for dad beyond the respirator.
All of the family was there, the children, grandchildren
and his only great-grandchild Celena. We all spoke to dad,
and ministered to him in songs and prayer. As Shawnae sang
to him, he started to weep. Philip prayed for him and began
to speak in tongues.
He later told me that while he was praying, he felt he
was standing in grandpa’s place. I guess he was standing
in the gap for grandpa. He said he had never felt that sense
of spirit before. Chad put his hand on grandpa and prayed
the way a minister would.
Even Dustin sang and encouraged grandpa. As we all sang
and prayed, dad raised his hands to worship God. In his
weakest moment, he wanted to give back to God some praise.
The nurse read his lips as he said I love you all”
She asked him if that was what he was saying and he nodded
his head “Yes” We were all able to express our
love to dad also, not every family has that privilege. It
is so much like my dad that even in his death he would want
us all to know he loves us. He included everyone in his
statement.
It was the most awesome thing I had ever experienced. Dad’s
nurse kept coming into the room, hugging us and crying.
God’s presence was so strong in dads room and it spilled
out into the halt and into other nearby rooms. People were
standing, looking in dad’s room and feeling what we
were feeling.
We kept praying that God would do a quick work for dad
and he would not have to suffer or gasp for breath. That
would have been very hard on mom and God knew that, so he
took care of her too by just allowing dad to go very peacefully.
He just took a breath and went to “sleep”. He
lived only 45 minutes after the respirator was turned off.
We thank God that He allowed dad to go so peacefully. That’s
how God works.
You see, God knew several months ago that He would be calling
dad home very soon. So, He began to do a great work in their
lives. They were able to sell their home and move into an
apartment in August 1998. It is all on one floor and dad
was so happy that mom no longer had to climb stairs or worry
about the repairs of the house. It was also a financial
blessing for them to be able to sell their home and move.
Dad enjoyed looking out of the patio doors at the chipmunk
that lived in their yard. He also liked to watch the birds
that would come and eat the food mom put out for them. He
really loved it there. Before dad passed away, mom told
him she got to pick the apartment and now he could go on
and pick their mansion in heaven!
It is incredible how God took care of every little detail.
Even at the Funeral Home on Saturday, when we were making
arrangements for dad’s funeral, the director told us
there was a problem with the grave site dad and mom had
purchased several years ago. They offered mom two new grave
sites side-by-side at the edge of the woods. His original
site was in the middle of the veteran’s area. The funny
thing is that morn never liked the idea of the original
one because it was a double depth crypt in the ground and
she didn’t feel comfortable with that. Now they will
be side-by-side at the edge of the woods, dad loved the
woods. His plot number is 47, we began to laugh and say
4 for the number of kids he has and 7 is God’s perfect
number. He also has 7 grandchildren! That is so much like
God My dad will truly “REST IN PEACE”.
I kept telling my mom that God will always take a crisis
and make something good come out of it for His glory. Therefore,
I feel dad’s ministry of winning souls is not over
just because he is no longer with us. His legacy will live
on through souls that will be won to God. and people who
have strayed from God will return through dad’s death.
Dad always had a love for people. He always found good in
everyone. He did not hold grudges or talk about anyone.
He did not condemn anyone if they made a mistake. He had
an awesome quiet strength and a great faith in God. I hope
I have inherited a little of dad’s strength and compassion.
He will be missed and loved by many. But, his love for God
will live on for generations to come.
Written by
D’Lorah Campos
March 13,1999
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