Bummer news from Paul 71-521

[69FJWagon]

I have avoided this post for fear of reading this news it is a hard thing to deal with even with not ever meeting or talking with Paul may his family find some comfort in knowing he is no longer suffering or feeling any pain.

 

to his family GOD BLESS YOU ALL

 

Clayton

[Farmer]

This is truely sad news. Just found this thread today. I do remeber him over at the nwde and the picture the 2edeye posted. Sounded like a great guy to know. May God comfort his family and loved ones.

 

Larry

[lynchfourtwenty]

i too have been avoiding this post for the past few weeks for the same reason as some of you, fear of reading the worst had happend.. well i manned up and have read everything from the last time i posted to now. and i too want to give my best to pauls family, im sure where ever he is.. he's driving alot nicer datuns then we are.. they're prolly like new up there.. maybe they're the ones that have passed on in this world also so that we could have something to drive when we go too..

[tiltnose510]

Goodbye Paul. Rest in Peace. My prayers are with the family.

[mklotz70]

I'll try to post up a couple of pics, but I couldn't find the one I really wanted. It was an old nwde thread about his motor rebuild....it was a pic of him holding an L series motor by himself. Kinda showed his strength. Nice way to remember him.

 

Paula and I went up a couple of weeks ago. TerriLynn had let me know that he didn't have long, so we chose to see him while he was still with us. We have weekdays off, so we drove up on a tuesday and got to visit with him and TerriLynn for a few hours. It will be remembered well. He talked about Ted(tdaaj) and Bonnie's(blackdato) visit and the 320 they gave him. He talked about Jeff's(Ice) visit, too. He really did cherish getting to see you guys!! There may have been others that I don't know about. I guess Jeff stayed for quite awhile! Paul sure lit up talking about that.

 

Here's another email from his sister that was quite comforting. It's more of the details of Paul's final moments....to let everyone know that he went peacefully.

.............................................

 

I wanted to share this message with you that I sent to our friends last night, as you are very close to Paul and TerriLynn. Thank you for being a part of my brother’s life...

 

My brother, Paul, died this morning at 10:45am. It’s been just a few days over eight months since he was diagnoses with stage four stomach cancer. I don’t even know where to begin to recap the joys and sorrows of this short time frame, but I will recount just a few of the praises. He should have been dead last July by organ poisoning when the tumor ulcerated his stomach, but instead everything was contained in the area where his spleen had been that had been taken out 4 years ago... none of organs were affected by the acid contents of the stomach, as well as his heart hadn’t failed due to his potassium levels were so low (1.7 when 3.5 – 5.0 is normal) they couldn’t perform surgery for 36 hours until they got his levels raised. He was given 1 week to 1 month to live on January 11th when he was in the midst of his 5th hospital stay since July. The doctor said if he makes it to one month, we should could it a blessing. All five of his younger sons (he has an estranged oldest son) were able to visit with him in the past two weeks or so. One coming back from his deployment to Iraq. Paul was able to celebrate his youngest son, Sampson’s 9th birthday with him on Wednesday. Little things, maybe, but big things to him. I’d remind him “God has done miracles and will continue to work good in your life.”

 

But the miracle of it all, and I didn’t even witness it, was the moments before his passing. A total answer to so many prayers. I was working this morning at Amanda’s high school, so I didn’t get to be there, but I’m so full of praise for what occurred... the medical team was wheeling him from the house to the ambulance when a neighbor walking by asked if she could pray for Paul. After her prayer (which I was told was the most beautiful prayer they’d ever heard), she anointed Paul with oil. Paul took one more breathe and then they didn’t see him breathe again. He was loaded into the ambulance. They informed TerriLynn he didn’t survive the short distance to the hospice facility. I don’t know who this neighbor is, but she made the final connected through her prayer and anointing him with oil that allowed Paul to finally let go.

 

My prayers, along with so many others, were that he would just breathe his last and be gone. I had told him that was my prayer. He said didn’t want to die the way our mom had died – with her heart stopping and her lungs filling up.

 

We had wonderful spiritual talks on Tuesday and Wednesday surrounding his recap of him nearly dying on Tuesday in the early morning hours. TerriLynn said she thought she was going to lose Paul. But Paul said that although he’d seen the big angels standing around and the little angels were flying all around swiftly and heading toward the light, he had a choice to stay a little while longer and he didn’t want to die just before or on his son’s birthday. We talked about angels, their purpose, and how God has angels just ‘assigned’ to us. I told him those big angels were probably waiting for him to be ready...ready to go.

 

On Wednesday, we had an all-day celebration as people came and went for his son’s birthday. We even got some video of him when he suddenly took something we said in conversation and acted it out in such a funny way. We all got to sit around and laugh and have fun even though it was such a sobering time. He was throwing up again and we asked him to turn the bucket around so the holes on the lip were in the back, to ensure he didn’t spill or leak any. Someone said we should get some superglue and glue the holes. Paul put the bucket to his mouth and pretended his lips were stuck to the bucket with the superglue. It was such a sweet memory that in the midst of the worst time of all, he was able to find something to make us laugh about. He even re-enacted it for us to video tape.

 

When it hit 12:10am on Thursday morning and his wife, TerriLynn and I told Paul that it was the new day and he could let himself go, things started declining even more. We were up nearly all the night because he was so tired, so restless, and so full of tremors. I got to have one of the last conversations he held with someone that Thursday morning about 3:00am when I’d helped him to the bathroom and then outside to smoke one last cigarette. I will treasure that little exchange of words about nothing in particular forever. Except he asked if I thought it was all a game. Life, I asked him? Then whether we have teammates as well as opponents. Just a deep thought process...an exchange that’s hard to explain...

 

By 7:00am, Paul was no longer talkative, by 12:15 the hospice nurse said he was ‘actively dying’ and didn’t think it would last for more than an hour. We adjusted medication as he tremored and moaned as if in pain. I prayed with him, I talked with him, I played “I Can Only Imagine” on our laptop right next to him. Someone asked if I thought he was in turmoil. Hospice personnel asked him questions like “what have you seen... have you seen any family members” etc. I talked with him as they said the hearing is the last sense to go when a person is dying. I reminded him that he’d made a statement of his faith in Jesus in January, he received forgiveness from God which mattered more than forgiveness from any person that he felt he’d wronged and needed forgiveness from. Not much communication occurred, but after one prayer, he definitely responded “Amen” although it was slightly delayed. And everyone heard it.

 

This morning, on the phone, the family talked about what we felt was best for Paul and were starting to wonder if in following orders from hospice, we were hindering him by overmedicating him. He had only spoken more than a word here or there in over 12 hours and that was at the 10:00pm or so medication change when the morphine pump was turned off and he started to say he wanted to go while trying to get out of bed. Therefore, after consulting hospice nurses, they decided to move him to a hospice facility just a couple miles from his house that had a room available. There nurses could monitor him constantly to gauge what his needs were.

 

But he never made it there... he instead was outside where he loved to be, had just been prayed over, had been anointed with oil, and passes from this lifetime to eternal life.

 

Thank you so much for your prayers these past months for my brother, his family, myself and my family. Many times I wasn’t sure what was helping me get through, but then I’d realize that it was only because there was so much prayer surrounding us – lifting us, carrying the deep burden. Then there is my deep thanks as well to those who contributed to the Puppe Family Cancer Donation Fund at US Bank. This will help TerriLynn get established and back on track financially for her family that she now needs to support alone.

 

You all are so special. May God pour out a blessing upon you that meets your every need! J Kristine

[daddyman007]

I read the post on fri but could not find words.

being a newbe I did not know paul,but my condolances to his family.

if they need anything just ask.

del 253 238 1380

:(

[datzenmike]

Thanks Mike, it hadn't really sunk in till now, how very sad and wonderful is his passing. A co-worker's father passed in a similar manner with his sons and family round him. His last words were to be taken outside to see the sky, and was lifted by his bed sheets and carried to his garden by his sons, where he closed his eyes. Would that we all could, when our time has come, pass in a manner such as Paul's.

[Thomas]

This thread has been closed out of respect for Paul. Please post any memories or condolences in this thread from now on.