Debby, Part III

Debby decided to wait until the following Monday before being taken off of the vent so that her brother, Danny, and his wife could come in from Chicago to say goodbye. That last weekend of Debby's life was as unbelievable testimony to God's goodness and faithfulness. Even though we knew these were are last days with Debby, they were full of joy. Debby was able to say goodbye to each family member and many of her friends, and very few people get that opportunity.

While Tim and I were talking to her, she confessed to us that she was scared to come face-to-face with Jesus--she feared that she would hear from Him, "Depart from me, I never knew you" instead of "Well done, my good and faithful servant". At this point, even though we had the door closed to her room, several people entered the room. For the next 30 minutes or so, we could not keep people out of the room. Every time we got someone to leave, someone else would come in. It was obvious that Satan did not want us to finish our conversation. I kept praying that God would allow us to finish our conversation, and He finally did answer that prayer.

I asked Debby why she was fearful of hearing "Depart from me" from Jesus, and she said because she knew that was one of the two options. If you knew Debby, you knew that answer made a lot of sense--she was a very analytical thinker. So, I asked her if she believed that the only way into Heaven was through faith in Jesus, and she said, "Oh, yes!" Just the joy on her face alone gave evidence that her faith was real. Tim and I then ensured her that she had nothing to fear.

The greatest outcome of our conversation with Debby, was that she was then encouraged enough to spend the rest of the day witnessing to the other family members. While we've not seen any conversions to Jesus Christ yet, we are still praying that those seeds that Debby planted will grow!

The day that the medical staff actually took Debby off of the ventilator was full of joy, but also sorrow as we were saying our last goodbyes. They nurses started sedating Debby around 9:00 am, and it should have taken about 20 minutes for her to be completely sedated. But, Debby was never one to play by the rules--it took almost 8 hours for her to become completely unresponsive. We're not really why it took so long for her body to respond to the drugs, but I think that she was just enjoying as much time with her friends and family as she could. But, around 5:30 pm, they were able to remove her from the ventilator. In just 5 short hours, Debby passed away from this earth and into God's Heavenly Kingdom, where I know she heard "Well done, my good and faithful servant."