The Phone Call

The Phone Call

My son Patrick called me from his apartment today. He got to go home with a walker this afternoon after spending two weeks on life support in the Intensive Care Unit, one more week in a private room at the same hospital, then another three weeks at a nursing facility. There he received physical therapy for his paralysis caused by the life saving efforts while on a ventilator. His sister picked him up and brought him to his place. She couldn't stay long with him though, because she wanted to get home before the roads iced up again. So he was there by himself when he called me.

His spirits were up and he began telling me that he was going through all the cards and letters that he had received while he was in the ICU in the hospital, and on life support. He stopped breathing on Sunday, November 2, 2008 due to a severe asthma attack. He said that he had framed the big card that his sister Julie had given him with the lighthouse on it and an inspiring verse. If I remember right, the card had quoted a Biblical verse on it also.

Pat said that he hung it in the kitchen of his apartment. He said "I have more faith in the Lord now Mom."
Then he told me: "You're probably going to think this is weird, but you know those dreams I was having when I was in the hospital...like the one I told you I saw a Christmas scene in? Well, I had one all the time in there that I was climbing a mountain that had snow all over it and I was trying to get to the top...but I couldn't." He paused a bit then, as though he were getting up his courage to confide in someone, and began telling me that there was a guy with him all the time he was in the ICU unit hooked up to the machines, helping him and that he(Patrick) "Did not feel like he was struggling!" that the guy was feeling it all for him, but he didn't know who the guy was.

It was the phone call that I had been waiting for. Pat had several brushes with death all the while he was in the ICU. We were told three times the first day there to get all of our family together because - "He was going." Those were the pulmonary doctor's exact words. We kept a vigil by his bedside as his vital signs peaked dangerously high each day. All we could do was watch and pray. We reached out to friends and family for prayer for him. Many asked for God to send Guardian Angels to his side.

There it was. I could hardly believe I was hearing it! He had said it at last! I was not about to bring up the "guy standing behind my bed." That was a sensitive issue. Patrick had been too sick and way too fragile for me to bring it up during our conversations over the past few weeks.

How I had waited to hear those very words. I, of course, got choked up and repeated to Ron(my fiance) exactly what he was saying to me as soon as he said it. I had to share the moment.

Then I said to Pat: "Thank God you didn't reach the top of that mountain."

I asked if he remembered asking, Julie, Justin(her husband) and I, about the guy standing behind his bed. He said "No."

He did not remember asking all of us - "Who is that guy standing behind my bed?" I told him everything that he had asked that day of all of us, and how we three were the only ones in his room visiting that day after he came off of the ventilator. How he kept asking me "Is someone else in the room with us Mom? Is there a guy standing behind my bed?" and how I would tell him "No, Pat no-one is standing behind your bed."

I, also, told him that he had asked Justin as soon as he recognized him "Dude, just tell me who the guy is standing behind my bed."

He got real quiet for a few seconds, then said that he did not remember any of that, but repeated that he only knew that all the time he was in ICU that there was a guy who was doing the struggling for him, and that he (Patrick) did not feel any of it!

WOW! That was when I teared up and asked him if he believed in Salvation. He answered "Yeah, but why would God want to save me after all the stuff that I have done, and things that I said to people in the past?"

I told him that we are all sinners and that Jesus died on the cross to save us from our sins. That God cares and sent a Guardian Angel to watch over him in ICU and heal him. I, also, told him that we had all reached out and asked for prayers for him as he came so close to death's door while lying there.

He said that he feels different now and that he doesn't care if people think that he is weird for telling them all of this.

I told him: "You're not weird Pat. God is real, and that Guardian Angel was real...you weren't dreaming hon."

We both said our love you's and goodbye's, and I hung up the phone.

What an emotional phone call that was!




Word Count:944


You may want to read the poem based on this true happening -

The Gift Of Life  (E) He was there all along. Christmas will shine with a bright new light. #1501323 by ShiShad