"A Very Sad Time"

I spent most of last weekend at the hospital with my dad and he got out on Sunday (6-25-06). The next day (6-26-06)after returning from work and spending some time just at the house watching one of my favorite sitcoms, "Friends" I received a call from one of my cousins telling me that his brother had been in the hospital and they were transferring him to Hospice and that he wasn't going to make it this time. This cousin drank a lot and had gone to the hospital several times. Once he fell down the stairs backward and almost lost his life but he recovered. Later he ended up back in the hospital because of his drinking and as a result, he was court-ordered to a nursing home where he spent pretty much a year. While there, he was not allowed to drink. Whenever I went to visit him I would try to reason with him about his drinking from the standpoint that he had gone a long time without taking a drink so he could go from now on, and when he got out, he should not drink. However, he had to get a lawyer to help him get out of the nursing home. My dad and I visited him several times and he was back to his old habit, telling me he was only drinking beer. In my eyes, alcohol is alcohol whether it comes in beer or whatever. Anyway, a bunch of us all met at Hospice and gathered in his room. He was not coherent but could hear us talk to him. The staff member told us what to expect and to talk to him because he could hear us. He also informed us that this would be our last chance to say whatever we wanted to say to him. We spent the evening talking to him, praying for him, reading scriptures and we also got him to accept Christ as his Savior. At 4:44 a.m. the next morning, he passed away.