Stairway to Heaven, June 12, 2009

As Craig is spending more time in bed, he often sits on the edge of the bed with a wooden TV tray in front of him with his meal. Tonight I pulled in a chair and my own tray and we ate together – baked chicken, dressing, carrots, and potatoes. After dinner we drank tea and ate cookies and talked.

Talking these days is mostly Craig saying single words so I have some idea of what he is thinking about. Then I ask questions that he can answer with “yes” or “no” so I figure out what is on his mind. We got talking about the angels. He motioned with his hand that they were higher than him and on his left side. Pleasant is no longer with him (I asked if he had to go back to work, and Craig said “yes”!). His Dad, Kevin, Janet, Becky, Debbie, Pearl, and now Jet Andrews were there tonight.

I asked if he is seeing the angels in the daytime now or still only at night. He is seeing them at both times, but not all of the time. I asked if he sees them only in his bedroom (“no”) or if he now sees them elsewhere in the house and out in the driveway, where he likes to sit in the sun. He said “yes”. I asked if he had seen anyone famous like Christopher Columbus, and he said “no”. I asked if he had seen ‘Abdu’l-Bahá or his heroes Mulla Husayn or Quddus, and he said “Oh!” “No!” and looked very surprised. I commented that maybe that was why he hadn’t left yet, that he was waiting for them. He said “maybe”. The only people he has recognized with him are friends from the greater Cleveland area who have passed on and his father.

I curled up in the bed next to him for a while. At one point, I was laying watching him and he suddenly stared straight ahead and said “Oh! Stairs!” Through questioning I was able to determine that he was seeing a set of stairs floating in the air, that the angels were wanting him to climb the stairs, that the climbing once he began was “easy”, that he was not afraid, and that the arrival “plaza” that he painted in last Saturday’s painting was at the top of the stairs. He said a couple of times that “they are there in spirit”. I asked if they wanted him there in spirit, too. He responded “yes”. He then had a brief time of confusion where he didn’t understand quite where he was and what I was asking him related to the stairs. He said “this may be the last time I see you”. I asked if he wanted me to call and gather the few people he had said could be at his bedside while he was passing, but he didn’t want that. He just wanted quiet.

We played a lot of music all evening. During the time of the stairs, the song that was playing was a Bahá’í quotation, “O MAN OF TWO VISIONS! Close one eye and open the other. Close one to the world and all that is therein, and open the other to the hallowed beauty of the Beloved. (Bahá’u’lláh, The Persian Hidden Words, #12) Amazing!

There is a prayer Craig has been asking for since Saturday, but we have been totally unable to figure out which one he wants. We decided tonight that the angels could probably help him find it, and he smiled in relief and said “yes”.

We did our normal bedtime routine of changing his clothes and getting him in bed. I now have to use the lift to place him in the bed high enough so that his lungs don’t fill with phlegm. We lay together and listed the “roses” of the day. I cleaned up the kitchen from dinner and then went back in to sing the Healing Prayer with him, which I’d forgotten to do. I said a second prayer as well and kissed him goodnight.

It will be a late night – Medical Services is delivering breathing treatment equipment and medicine to him around midnight in case we need it. The sublime and the practical together...

Love,

Susanne