**Vanity** Prayers for WWII Vet

sweet_diane

[sweet_diane]

I am posting this in request for prayers for my parents. My father has been receiving dialysis for over a year now and has moved into the moderate stage of Alzheimer's. Over the last month it has been very difficult for him to get to the clinic for dialysis and even with the treatments he was always in pain and uncomfortable. My mother and my sisters and I have decided to stop the dialysis and hospice is coming in to help ease his pain.

Daddy was a B-17 pilot in WWII and received several medals including a Purple Heart. He was a Co-Pilot in the Aphrodite mission, the same experimental program that took the life of Joe Kennedy. In his later years he reconnected with the members of his crew of the 'Sittin' Pretty' and enjoyed participating in the 8th Air Force Historical Society. After service and graduating from the University of Alabama (Roll Tide!) he met and married my mother. In the late 70's he retired from the FAA where he was an Air Traffic Controller and he and my mother moved to the Gulf Coast of Alabama.

Stopping the dialysis treatment is like removing any form of life support, not an easy decision for anyone, especially my mother who has been his primary caregiver, yet it is the only right decision to be made. He has no quality of life and hospice can offer him comfort in his final days (at least that what we are praying for).

I thank God for every second of my 43 years with Daddy. He's a man of dignity and character no matter how hard the Alzheimer's tries to strip that away and I ask that my fellow FReepers would lift him in prayer in these, his final days.

[sweet_diane]

Thank you.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

Prayers from my family to yours.

[ex-snook]

God Bless your Dad and the whole family. He has this one last mission to complete and he will go home to God in the Wild Blue Yonder.

[billbears]

prayers lifted up for your family right now for peace and strength

[sweet_diane]

Thank you so much

[Quilla]

Prayers going out for you and your family, Diane. My father was also a B-17 pilot in WWII (8th Air Force, 385th Bomb Group). He was a man of integrity and honor, humor and love, my hero. I lost him six years ago but still talk to him every day. Rest in the knowledge that you are the daughter of one of America's finest.

[Cboldt]

You and your family are in my prayers. May God provide all of you with strength of your spiritual convictions.

[jtminton]

Prayers sent! JG, don't you run a prayer ping list?

[sweet_diane]

Thank you for the comforting words (from you and everyone). Daddy was 96th Bomb Group and like your dad, he is my hero as well.

[MoralSense]

God bless your Dad, Dianne. I was on dialysis for six years, and it had a mortality rate like a combat infantry platoon. I'm sure you've made the right choice.

[Robert Teesdale]

We're fast losing the greatest generation. At a support the troops rally a couple of weeks ago, there was a WWII veteran there - with his portable oxygen tank and cane. I couldn't help thinking that before too long, there will be none who were there during that war.

God grant your father a gentle and peaceful passing, and comfort to you and yours. The nation will not forget the great sacrifices of his generation.

[Skywarner]

Actually, it is we who should thank you and your father for his service.

My father, who was with the 509th Composite Group on Tinian, recently passed away as well. We were faced with a similar decision as yours. He was coherent enough to make the choice himself. My only regret was that he passed away before we were able to get to the hospital that morning (we were spending every available hour with him for over 40 days).

These WWII vets were truly from the greatest generation.

[GrandMoM]

God be with you and your family. I know how hard it has been for you, I took care of my father with alzheimer's for the last two years of his life. It is devastating for the family members. I pray GOD takes him home soon.

[ErnBatavia]

My late mother in law's cousin...great site.

http://www.cloudnet.com/~jfb/

[sweet_diane]

Bless your heart.. six years is a long time. I'm so glad to see you here!

Daddy's identical twin passed in 1973 due to kidney cancer. In 1984 cancer was found in daddys right kidney (his bros cancer started in his left kidney). They removed the kidney and all the cancer. My uncle passed around the 1st of April and here we are all these years later around the 1st of April.

[TXBSAFH]

Prayers.

[sweet_diane]

I've save the site..thank you so much! Daddy flew out of England and over Germany. This site gives me wonderful insight to his flying days. :)

[sweet_diane]

Could you ping your list? Thank you.

[Tijeras_Slim]

Prayers for a brave man and his family.

[skeeter]

For your dad...

High Flight

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long delirious, burning blue,
I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew -
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high unsurpassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.