Her Last Six Days

I wrote the following several weeks ago--

"I sat in Mom's chair yesterday.  Dad is gone on a fishing trip and so I am stopping in every other day to pick up mail and check on plants, etc.  I wonder if I'm having a taste of what it's like for my Dad to be there when she is not.  I'm aware of how loud the quiet is, how still it all feels without her.  And yet how very present she is to me.

From the vantage point of her chair it struck me!  This was her view the last six days of her life.  What I could see with my own eyes was all that remained of her world.  This beautiful home which she and Dad had created less than a year previous was her only landscape. The kitchen and living area, dining, the entrance, all staring back at her.
What was it like to watch this realm called earth fade from view?
Did turquoise pale in comparison to those early days of decorating excitement?

Did she close her eyes only to rest or to block out earthly things and allow heaven's beauty to come into view?
What did it feel like to no longer desire the smorgasbord of foods she once loved?
How does does one let go of all that once made life joyous, except that life's truest bliss was still to come?
Did she relive her life as on a screen, one episode at a time, until her season's finale was in view?
Did she have regrets or did Jesus simply take them from her hands so He could hold hers instead?
Did she know how much, oh yes, deep down, I think she knew how overwhelmingly she was loved!!  So many of us made precious space to tell her in her latter days.
Did she finally take it all in?

Did she know that Thursday that she was not leaving home but going home?
Did she say goodbye to my Dad that afternoon with a bright smile and "I love you" because this was the remembrance she wanted for him?
What vision did Jesus give her at 5 pm that afternoon?
What image or beckoning did He extend to make the final passage turn from dark to light?
What was it like to have life slow one breath at a time until there was no more?
Until new life and new breath and the light of the Son brought all things into focus.
How seeing in a glass dimly became face to face,
the knowing gloriously complete.