Three days warning before you die

  • Thread starter Thread starter anthonymarie
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
A

anthonymarie

Guest
I heard somewhere as a child, I don’t remember where now, that there was an old devotion to St Joseph (I’m not even sure which one) through which St Joseph promises to give you three days warning before you die.

I mentioned it to some Catholic friends recently and none of them had heard of it. When I searched, I couldn’t find any reference to it except an old prayer, seemingly to Joseph of Arimathea, which mentions “something” about three days warning. Has anyone else ever heard of it? If so, do you know where it came from?
 
Hey thanks zab, there’s something similar there:
Prayer to St. Joseph over 1900 years old …
Click to expand...
Whoever reads this prayer or hears it or carries it, will never die a sudden death, nor be drowned, nor will poison take effect of them. They will not fall into the hands of the enemy nor be burned in any fire, nor will they be defeated in battle.
Click to expand...
It’s even got an imprimatur!
 
I have never heard of that. I will let you know there is a common and remarkably predictable characteristic in some terminally ill people. It is probably called many things but I hear it most commonly called a “bounce” or “rebound”.

It is when someone who is declining has a “great day”, meaning they have been very lethargic / minimally responsive and one day it is like they are better. The family will comment how they were laughing & joking, carrying on conversation, eating like they used to and even asking for their favorite food. It is almost always a 72 hour predictor of death. The family will have high hopes of recovery but the next day the person will be considerably declined and vital signs and condition continue diminish until they pass away within a day or two. It is often a sort of gift to the family to have one last day with them.
 
ChurchSoldier said:
I have never heard of that. I will let you know there is a common and remarkably predictable characteristic in some terminally ill people. It is probably called many things but I hear it most commonly called a “bounce” or “rebound”.

It is when someone who is declining has a “great day”, meaning they have been very lethargic / minimally responsive and one day it is like they are better. The family will comment how they were laughing & joking, carrying on conversation, eating like they used to and even asking for their favorite food. It is almost always a 72 hour predictor of death. The family will have high hopes of recovery but the next day the person will be considerably declined and vital signs and condition continue diminish until they pass away within a day or two. It is often a sort of gift to the family to have one last day with them.
Click to expand...
very interesting! You’re very perceptive to correlate the two.
 
I have read in s few Marian devotions that you will be graced with the chance for receiving last rites before you die. In some places, three days would be about right for a priest to find you.
 
Yes. It’s very true. My sister used to be a Hospice RN and most patients would know when they would die. They would say, “I’m going to die on Thursday. Maybe Wednesday. But I think it will be Thursday.” Even though the patients were highly drugged they would always manage to let you know when they would die. I don’t recall about the “three days” but it was always within the week.

I also remember reading an article about a resident cat in a nursing home. If a patient were about to die the cat “Oscar” would jump in their bed and cuddle up with them until they died.
 
Wow that is an amazing story about Oscar. What a sweet kitty.
 
ChurchSoldier said:
I have never heard of that. I will let you know there is a common and remarkably predictable characteristic in some terminally ill people. It is probably called many things but I hear it most commonly called a “bounce” or “rebound”.

It is when someone who is declining has a “great day”, meaning they have been very lethargic / minimally responsive and one day it is like they are better. The family will comment how they were laughing & joking, carrying on conversation, eating like they used to and even asking for their favorite food. It is almost always a 72 hour predictor of death. The family will have high hopes of recovery but the next day the person will be considerably declined and vital signs and condition continue diminish until they pass away within a day or two. It is often a sort of gift to the family to have one last day with them.
Click to expand...
This is what happened to my mother-in-law. She was in bed, unresponsive for days (she was at home in hospice care). Then one morning she opened her eyes, said she had to urinate We got her to the bedside commode and she began talking, laughed a little, quite peppy. Back to bed and she spoke with us. Later that afternoon she went unresponsive again and died early the next morning, when my father-in-law got up to use the bathroom.

The family had not left her alone at all for the week before she died, my FIL continued to sleep with her. I found it quite interesting that she died when she finally was left alone. As a nurse, I had seen this happen with some of my patients. They waited to die until the family left and they were alone.
 
CB_Catholic said:
This is what happened to my mother-in-law. She was in bed, unresponsive for days (she was at home in hospice care). Then one morning she opened her eyes, said she had to urinate We got her to the bedside commode and she began talking, laughed a little, quite peppy. Back to bed and she spoke with us. Later that afternoon she went unresponsive again and died early the next morning, when my father-in-law got up to use the bathroom.

The family had not left her alone at all for the week before she died, my FIL continued to sleep with her. I found it quite interesting that she died when she finally was left alone. As a nurse, I had seen this happen with some of my patients. They waited to die until the family left and they were alone.
Click to expand...
The “waited to die” observation of many nurses and family is often seen as a patient “willing” himself to live or die in a certain way at a certain time. If there was full decisionmaking and willpower on the part of a person, then I am sure that more people would be dead by simply willing it and more might be alive by simply willing it. Will alone is not the determining factor.

Actually I see that some people, in deep communion with their Creator, are in a collaboration with God, perhaps all of us are, and we seem to be negotiating, bargaining, requesting, begging throughout our lives with God for certain events to happen as we wish. And those wishes are granted. Not everyone who receives this gift is openly faithful; that’s God’s will.

Not everyone understands this, however. Some think they have longer to go and then suddenly die. Some want to go quickly and soon and live months and years longer than they would have wished. The ability to know you are dying is truly a grace.

Perhaps in our devotions to the Holy Family there is a channel for that grace.
 
ChurchSoldier said:
I have never heard of that. I will let you know there is a common and remarkably predictable characteristic in some terminally ill people. It is probably called many things but I hear it most commonly called a “bounce” or “rebound”.

It is when someone who is declining has a “great day”, meaning they have been very lethargic / minimally responsive and one day it is like they are better. The family will comment how they were laughing & joking, carrying on conversation, eating like they used to and even asking for their favorite food. It is almost always a 72 hour predictor of death. The family will have high hopes of recovery but the next day the person will be considerably declined and vital signs and condition continue diminish until they pass away within a day or two. It is often a sort of gift to the family to have one last day with them.
Click to expand...
I once worked as an orderly in a hospital while paying my way through university, and I too saw this phenomenon, I remember one terminally ill cancer patient, had his family in visiting, was perky as could be, you’d swear there was nothing wrong with him, nurses commented on how he was having a great day then a few days later he was dead.

As for choosing a time to die, 20 years ago my step-sister was dying from terminal heart disease; she had a new granddaughter that had just been born and she was waiting to see her for the first time. After her daughter brought her granddaughter to visit her at the hospital, she died a couple of days later.
 
ChurchSoldier said:
I have never heard of that. I will let you know there is a common and remarkably predictable characteristic in some terminally ill people. It is probably called many things but I hear it most commonly called a “bounce” or “rebound”.

It is when someone who is declining has a “great day”, meaning they have been very lethargic / minimally responsive and one day it is like they are better. The family will comment how they were laughing & joking, carrying on conversation, eating like they used to and even asking for their favorite food. It is almost always a 72 hour predictor of death. The family will have high hopes of recovery but the next day the person will be considerably declined and vital signs and condition continue diminish until they pass away within a day or two. It is often a sort of gift to the family to have one last day with them.
Click to expand...
I too have experienced this. My grandmother was dying of cancer. She was very lethargic and quiet. All of the sudden she had a great day and it was as though she didn’t have cancer. She was sitting up, joking, laughing, etc. The next day she passed away. There was a definite change in her demeanor the day before she died.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top