"Dead GRANDFATHER?"

Tonight I'm ripping off possibly the funniest high school movie EVER (arguably, of course), Ferris Bueller's Day Off. They pretend that his girlfriend's grandmother dies to get her out of school for the day off, if you've been living in a hole and haven't seen it, and the principal is suspicious. "Dead grandmother?" he says...but through the miracle of 80s technology they convince him that it's legit, and he lets her out of school.

Something similar is happening in my world...my grandfather is about to die and so much to my husband's delight (and I admit, I'm not un-pleased about the timing) we will probably miss our synod assembly. If you've ever been to one or something similar, you know that even if they're good (which ours generally are) they're still about as fun as poking yourself in the eye with a knitting needle, which I bring to the assemblies ostensibly to knit but also just in case....

Anyway, my grandfather is dying. He's 92 and he always told us he would go at 93, and he's almost there. My daughter's been saying funny stuff like "I'll miss greatgrandfather when he's in heaven. Jesus, make him feel better and make him stop dying!" And that's kind of what we're praying, that he would go ahead and go. He's told all of us he's ready, but somehow he can't quite let go, although his body is clearly shutting down. It's like when I kept trying to go into labor with my son...you just can't go until your body is ready, no matter what people say.

So we are in a holding pattern but mostly just praying that he would be ready, and just go, just truly pass away.