No Better Place

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The Testimony of One Who Found Himself in . . .


No Better Place
By Joseph Weilenbeck

If only I could tell you. If only I had heard.
If only I had believed. If only . . .

The light and the voices in the room at last gave way to darkness and silence.  All pain, all feeling, ceased.  All sensation faded.  Only a vague notion of movement remained, though neither vision nor feeling survived to give credence to that notion. 

Thoughts of peace began to replace the pain and anxiety that had finally released their hold upon me.  And with those thoughts, came memories.  Memories of comfort felt in my mother’s arms, of reassurance heard in my father’s voice, of tenderness shared in my wife’s loving touch, and of joy celebrated in play with my daughter.

A Blessed Assurance

A Blessed Assurance

by Joseph Weilenbeck

2009

The first hint of daybreak began to show at the window. The lights of the monitor next to Dad’s bed had been the dominant source of light for the past eight hours.  A dim light over the sink had provided barely enough light to read.  And muffled sounds of the hospital staff at work had occasionally penetrated the stillness of the room.  It would be one of the longest nights of my life. But, far too quickly, it came to an end.  As the light outside the window slowly began to grow brighter, the sounds of life-sustaining breath I had been intently listening to throughout the night grew noticeably weaker.