My Friend Donald Cowling is Dying, I am a little Busy (May 11, 2018)

Gun Watch ^ | 11 May, 2018 | Dean Weingarten

[marktwain]

My friend is dying in front of my eyes and I can do nothing but say a few words now and then. He exhibits no sign of awareness or understanding. I have been told that hearing is the last sense to go as the body shuts down. I have been praying for him for years. He has been an agnostic for 80 years. When I told him I would be praying for him when this started in January, He said he could use all the help he could get.

I have known Don for about 48 years. I met him when I was a young college student at the University of Wisconsin, probably in the spring of 1970.  We met when I joined the UW pistol team. The team shot against a local league of pistol shooters, to practice. Don was one of the very best shots in the league. He had been on the University pistol team in the early 1950's, but worked for the University full time when I met him.

Cancer (Lymphoma) has caught up with Don. He was vigorous and active until January of 2018. He turned 84 in April.

I have been witnessing to Don, but he has not told me he has asked God for help or has accepted Jesus as his savior.  He has not been an aggressive atheist. He has allowed for the existence of God. Now he is beyond communicating with me, dying next to me, an arms length away.

God can hear both Don and me.

I pray that God has opened his heart as he comes closer and closer to death. I told Don not to be the "stiff necked" person, but to ask for help.

Don is not dying impoverished. He had plenty of money that he did not spend. It is an object lesson in the transitory nature of this world. His example has sobered me and made me realize that I have much to do so as not to be a burden on my family. 

Please excuse this very personal vanity.

Death comes to all of us. No one gets out of this life alive.

It is difficult to see a friend die.

If my writing seems reduced, bear with me. Don will not be with us much longer.
I feel duty bound to spend time with him.  Don can probably hear me, and I know God does.

Any prayers would be appreciated.


Dean Weingarten

[marktwain]

Writing is what I do. It helps to express my sorrow.

[Sans-Culotte]

I am sorry to hear you are losing a dear friend. I pray that your prayers are answered.

[Yaelle]

Prayers up. I’m sorry. It hurts to lose a friend. I lost a best friend too and sometimes I feel her communicating with me. When your friend is whole again with Gd, I hope he lets you know. I’m sorry you are going through this.

[SolidRedState]

Dean, I have been a fan of yours for some time.

I wish you peace and confidence that your friend will be taken care of with mercy.

It is always a difficult time to watch family or friends suffer.

Keep the faith and may you be blessed for your efforts to comfort your friend.

God Bless

[Jim Robinson]

Prayers up. God bless.

[SoConPubbie]

I will be praying for both you and Don.

The old adage, from a hymn no less is “God can do anything but fail.”

My dear departed Father-in-Law, who was also my Pastor, was very fond of saying that when you pray, believe God. Believe He has heard your prayer, but more importantly, believe He is answering your prayer.

We are praying for the soul of a dying man. There is no more Holy prayer than that. God is listening and God is answering.

Lets believe God together for Don!

[Norski]

In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we loose the Spirit of Adoption by which we cry “Abba, Father”, into Donald. In Jesus’ mighty Name, we bind the spirits of pride and deception, so that Don can perceive and accept, taste and see that the Lord is good, and that He loves Don, and wants him to be reconciled to Him through His Son. Please Lord God, send angels to surround and protect Don so that he can be able to understand the offer being extended to him and accept and receive the gift of eternal life by calling on the Name of Jesus, so that we all see each other in Heaven.
Save him, Lord. In Jesus’ Name, amen.

[Zhang Fei]

May he find grace as he ventures upon his final journey.

[steve8714]

Will offer my prayer.

[thesearethetimes...]

Prayers lifting FRiend,

for your friend, and for you.
Tatt

[marktwain]

A beautiful prayer, so well written.

Thank you.

[Blue Jays]

Peace, best wishes, and godspeed to your friend Donald Cowling for this last journey.

[originalbuckeye]

Prayers said for your friend. It is so very hard to watch a beloved friend fade away. Prayers for your peace, too.

[thesearethetimes...]

Beautiful.

[Obadiah]

You are a good standard-bearer for the only One who matters.

Recently I had been visiting an unbelieving friend in her final days in hospice. I recall so vividly one particular visit knowing she probably had hours to live. Walking out of her room I was driving home and simply thunderstruck by the incongruity of seeing a guy nearby driving a Ferrari, clearly reveling in the moment of life.

It really crystalized for me how brief life really is and how most think somehow this life just keeps going on forever. As you note, no one gets out alive.

As a result of that moment, in part, I just finished a book called “Living Life Backward: How Ecclesiastes Teaches Us to Live in Light of the End”. It was a very good read.

Good vanity.

[xenia]

Prayers.

[Lurker]

Prayers up.

L

[moovova]

Prayers for your friend, sir. And for you.

[Celerity]

I did the same while losing friend and fellow Freeper Legion5999.

He introduced me to the forum. Never a smoker in his life, and watching his parents both die at the same time of cancer he kept himself from any cancerous activity.

He wound up getting lung cancer. I too watched him die, and was with him just about every step of the way.

When I moved from that stupid state to Pennsylvania I was away for a week. I came back to visit everyone, starting with my parents. I slept on their couch and woke to the call at 4am that he had passed just a few minutes before.

[marktwain]

You are a good standard-bearer for the only One who matters.

---

I pray that it is so, but I feel woefully inadequate.

All the glory belongs to God.

I had to lose my pride to ask God for help. It took 40 years of agnosticism.

Then, everything changed for the better.