Gurgle in the Coffee Pot

It is hard to believe it has been two weeks since my dad passed away. I never know if I should say he died or if he passed away. I think saying someone is dead sounds too final. Like that was the end of something. And maybe it was the end of one thing, but it's just the beginning of another. Passed away implies that the person has simply passed through this life and into the next. He is away from this place, but in another.

I am not meaning to start being preachy, but I know one thing for sure. There is more to death than just dying. There is another place. I have a testimony from my sacred, holy coffee pot.

The night my father passed away, I had come home after my family and my sisters and I had visited him our last time together on earth. Some members of my parents' church came to give him a blessing and have a ceremony of the laying on of hands. Daddy was in his bed, totally aware of what was happening and even able to smile as he told us how much he loved all of us and he reassured us that it was going to all be OK. I wonder if he was scared. He didn't act like it.

The ministers gave him a blessing and people took turns reading scriptures and saying prayers. Then, the minister anointed my father's head with oil and we all layed our hands on him. Angels filled the room and there was such powerful peace it's hard to even describe.

Mama shooed us all away around 8:30 pm. When I got home and put the children all to bed, Adrian stayed up with me as I cried in his arms. We talked and talked about my father and all the wonderful things that made him so special. Around 11:45 pm, the coffee maker in the kitchen started gurgling and hissing. There was nothing in it and no one had touched it. Adrian and I were in the dining room and had not even walked into the kitchen.

Adrian got up and said, "That's weird!" He got up to turn it off but it wouldn't turn off. He had to unplug it from the wall. I said, "Don't worry, it was just my dad." I started crying because I knew in my heart that he had just passed. The phone rang a minute later. It was my mom. She said, "Call your sisters, Daddy has just passed away." She described what had happened and how he had just slipped away.

I knew that my dad had given me a sign. He was saying, "You are about to get a phone call and it's going to be really hard to hear what your mother is going to say, but don't be scared, I am still here. I am not gone forever."

So that's my sacred, holy coffee pot. Daddy knew he could come this way to me since I am the weirdest person in the family when it comes to spiritual matters. He knew I am not so practical to dismiss it as a freak surge in the electricity. I am glad Adrian was there to witness it so no one can call me crazy for it.

I think when our eyes are open and we don't resist what is happening, that God will allow us to see miracles and reminders of His mysterious plan to reassure us along our journey that there is a lot more than meets the eye when it comes to death. Some people just know already and their hearts are full of testimony. But I have to admit mine was not...until I heard that gurgle. I had hoped there was....but now I know for sure.