My Dad passed away yesterday morning. He was 79. He suffered with insulin dependent diabetes for 40 years, and slowly progressing Parkinson's for 30 and was in the end stages of it.

We still thought he had another year or two but the Lord took him peacefully in his sleep all of a sudden. I'm devastated. Even though I prayed constantly that the Lord would take him before he became a complete invalid, I thought that would be another year or two. He was a very quiet man, but out of the blue a few months ago said he was ready. He had been organizing a lot of his paperwork and important papers the last couple weeks. He feared becoming totally invalid which is what eventually happens with Parkinsons.

He taught me and my older brother about the love of the woods and hunting when we were too little to even carry a gun. He was a safety bug and a half (like most pilots are). He was my hunting partner for 40 years. We were supposed to go hunting today, and every day for the rest of the season. He couldn't walk anymore, but somehow he could climb ladder stands and refused to hunt on the ground or from the golf cart even though he fell constantly.

Sometimes I would find him laying on the ground unable to get up. And he didn't care. All he cared about was going. I wanted him to get one more nice buck and he told me the other day when I found him crawling on the muddy ground unable to get up that he wasn't going to quit until he "killed one more buck." I guess it wasn't meant to be.

He spent 45 years in Army Aviation, 20 active duty as a Huey pilot flying two tours in Nam and 25 on the civilian side of things at Ft. Rucker.

Thank you.


Edit to add: he knew Christ as his Lord and Saviour so I know he is in a better place and his suffering is over, but I still never had pain like this.