Unexpected internet back-up

[Bob_Crowley]

I’ve often referred to my “old Protestant pastor” on this forum.

One of the stories he told me was that when he was a young pastor, he visited an elderly, saintly lady in hospital. She was dying, unconscious and ravaged by disease. But suddenly she just sat up, reached out towards the wall-ceiling junction, cried out, “Lord Jesus, I’m coming!” and then just fell back dead.

He said her face softened and she looked just like a young girl.

It was, he said, a real eye-opener for a young pastor.

Yesterday I was replying to an email by another forum member, and while I was doing so did a bit of research on the old pastor, to see if there was anything that might be of relevance to the email.

I got a real surprise to find that the very episode I referred to above was actually on the net. The link is below. I extracted some of the text and modified it slightly to get rid of a couple of interruptions in the original document.

From - webjournals.ac.edu.au/journals/EB/baptised-among-crocodiles/chapter-five-1946-1949-the-dormitory/

**The Passing of Isabella Hetherington **

On August 31st 1946, Isabella Hetherington passed away away in Mossman hospital at the age of 75 years. Ethel Vale was with her when she died. Ps. Easton was in Brisbane on Mission business and a Brisbane Presbyterian minister, who was a Methodist minister in the north, the Rev. Robert Missenden conducted her funeral.

She was a beautiful woman with snowy white hair down to her waist. I was supposed to pray for her, but she prayed for me.

I was with her when she died. I had read about what happened in books, but this happened before my eyes. She sat up in bed and said, ‘Lord Jesus. I am coming.’ Then she lay back and was gone

(Hunt, 1978).

My “old Protestant pastor” was the Rev. Robert Missenden quoted above. If that happened in 1946, he’d only have been about 22 at the time. And he told me it was a real eye-opener for a young pastor.

But I didn’t expect to find it on the net! He certainly didn’t put it there, as he died himself in 1992, aged 68. So the story must have impressed somebody else as well.

I’ve said before I regarded him as a “spiritual father”. My own father was most definitely not, but there were a couple of superficial similarities date wise. They were both born in 1924, and they both died in January, only a few days apart, although the pastor outlived my father by some years. And they’re buried only about 80 metres from each other.

Just a curiousity. The main thing was that he obviously had a startling spiritual experience as a young pastor.

Anyone with a similar story?

 

[fred_conty]

I have told this once before on CAF.
My father had a very similiar death. On the evening of his death, we put him to bed.
I was sitting on the bed at the right side with him. My mother was standing at his left side. He was in pain from his cancer even tho he was given his pain medicine.
He was paralized on his left side for nine years and couldn’t speak a word. But as a side note, mom and dad always prayed the rosary every day, and even tho he could not say anything because of the stroke, he could say the rosary as clear as a bell.

Anyway, after he was in bed lying down on his back, the expression on his face told us that he was miserable. We were staying with him until he would fall asleep. He closed his eyes, and then a few moments later, he opened them, raised up on his bed,
held out both arms, looked up at the ceiling, and said “Jesus”. Then fell back and expired. He went to mass and received communion every day before his stroke for years. I do not believe he ever missed Sunday Mass in his entire life before his stroke.He was a very kind father. I was very blessed to have him. I never cried for his loss because He was such a good man and was now happy. It was years and years later,one day I missed him so, I finally cried. The only time because I know he is happy and I couldn’t ask better for him.

How wonderful our sweet Lord is.

 

[Bob_Crowley]

I have told this once before on CAF.
My father had a very similiar death. On the evening of his death, we put him to bed.
I was sitting on the bed at the right side with him. My mother was standing at his left side. He was in pain from his cancer even tho he was given his pain medicine.
He was paralized on his left side for nine years and couldn’t speak a word. But as a side note, mom and dad always prayed the rosary every day, and even tho he could not say anything because of the stroke, he could say the rosary as clear as a bell.

Anyway, after he was in bed lying down on his back, the expression on his face told us that he was miserable. We were staying with him until he would fall asleep. He closed his eyes, and then a few moments later, he opened them, raised up on his bed,
held out both arms, looked up at the ceiling, and said “Jesus”. Then fell back and expired. He went to mass and received communion every day before his stroke for years. I do not believe he ever missed Sunday Mass in his entire life before his stroke.He was a very kind father. I was very blessed to have him. I never cried for his loss because He was such a good man and was now happy. It was years and years later,one day I missed him so, I finally cried. The only time because I know he is happy and I couldn’t ask better for him.

How wonderful our sweet Lord is.

Thanks for your story. As I said above, I was really surprised to see the same incident my “old Protestant pastor” told me about related by somebody else on the web.

Nice to know someone else probably went straight through, or very nearly so.

 

[gh4]

My MIL died years before I met my DH. He was 8 when she passed. He came from a LARGE family.
When his mother was dying, his older sisters took care of her.
She had cancer and it had pretty much spread everywhere. She’d been in a semi coma for many days, was unable to turn herself in bed and hadn’t spoken for for a very long time.
My SILs were sitting at her bedside holding her hands. All of a sudden, she sat straight up in bed, held her hands out to someone she was obviously seeing and looking at and speaking to at the foot of her bed and clearly said “Jesus, I’m coming home.” She fell back onto the bed and died.
My SILs were kind of stunned, it happened so quickly and was over before they could even react. They felt very lucky to have been there and to have witnessed this, there is NO doubt in their minds that their mother is in Heaven.

 

[Aussiegal]

Thank-you for sharing these stories, they are truely inspirational!