One afternoon about 2 months prior to finding out my daddy was terminally ill, I went to visit him and my mother. He would always see me driving up and would greet me at the back door when I came to visit. When he opened the door, I immediately saw a distinct look of “death” in his eyes. My first thought was, “He’s dying.” My heart sank. I was brokenhearted because I knew we weren’t going to have him much longer. God had spoken to me through Daddy’s eyes to prepare me.

I didn’t say anything to him about what I “saw” but told my mother that very day, she needed to have the doctor check Daddy for cancer. I told her what I had seen in his eyes. I knew something was really wrong, even though his health had not been good for a long time. About two months later he was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer.

One night I had this dream. I was in a place that had a lot of windows in it. Different colored shooting stars started falling from the sky . Someone said “let’s go outside!” Once outside, someone shouted “Come Jesus, We’re waiting on you. Come Jesus, we’re waiting on you.” Everyone was looking up and out of the clouds came Jesus! He reached down, picked up 5 or 6 people in His hands and took them away. He did this several more times and then he picked me up. When He did, I was extremely excited to see him and I said to him “Jesus, I have so much to tell you!" He responded almost comically, “In time, In time.” and he left me there.

Still in this place that I believed was heaven, I began to look for Daddy. When I saw him I said “Daddy!!!” He looked up, and I never saw him look so good. There was not a wrinkle on his face, he was healthier than I had EVER seen him look and with the biggest smile I had ever seen. I woke up immediately and was facing my alarm clock. The time was 12:24a.m. I knew this dream had meaning. I had the most peaceful feeling but I could not go back to sleep. I really felt like my mother would be calling me any minute to let me know he was gone.

I got up and wrote the dream down on paper so I would be sure not to forget ANY details, and was finally able to go back to sleep around 2:30a.m. Mom never called. When I woke up the next morning, I told my husband I had to go back to Gainesville and I would not be coming back until it was over. I took my daughter to school and told her I would see her soon and left on what would be my last trip to see my dad. All the way there I could not stop thinking about this amazing dream I’d had. What did it really mean? I did feel, that no matter what happened, everything was going to be alright. When I arrived, I found he was declining and they didn’t think he was going to live through the day. I told Mom about the dream and told her I knew there was meaning to it. Even though I knew Daddy was leaving us, I had such peace, indescribable peace.

It was also my parent’s 47th wedding anniversary. Daddy managed to wake up a couple of times that morning, once long enough for Momma to tell him Happy Anniversary. Once I was standing next to his bed, I picked up his hand and held it. He opened his eyes, looked up at me and said “I love you girl.” I told him I loved him too. That was the last thing he said to me. I will never forget that. Around 2 p.m., the doctor came in to check on him and asked him if he needed something for pain. He nodded. They gave him a shot, he went back to sleep and immediately started to breathe differently. That was the last time he woke up.

Then it happened, everything starting shutting down quickly and before we knew it, Daddy was gone. What we knew was coming and had tried to be prepared for happened. The grief was overwhelming. I remember looking at the clock in his room. It said 12:07 a.m. I thought about the dream only momentarily but thought it must have been “just a dream.” We were in there a little while before the doctor came in to pronounce him. When we received the death certificate, the time of death the doctor listed was 12:24 a.m. September 20th. The exact time I woke from the dream. It wasn’t “just a dream.”

Later on, I realized God sent this dream to show me what would happen. The lights on the monitor were the different colored “shooting stars” that came just before he came to get my father. On his monitor, each vital sign was a different color. The numbers on the monitor “fell” just like the shooting stars in my dream. I would also see him again and be in heaven where he took Daddy, but it was not yet my time. Jesus himself told me in the dream “In time. In time.” And most important, that my Daddy was with him, and was healthy , happy and is alright.

This dream helped me to deal with this great loss. For at least two months after my daddy died, I woke up at 12:24 a.m. several nights a week. Then one night I told Daddy that I knew he was ok and where he was and that I too, was alright. I haven’t woke up at 12:24 a.m. since that night.

Sandy Dollar Griffin