In my last post I wrote of my pending trip to Northern Ontario to be at the bedside of my brother-in-law, Don Hamilton.  I arrived at the medical center in Little Current on Manitoulin Island Thursday evening and discovered that he was in a semi-coma and had not been speaking all day.  How blessed I felt that when I told him I was there, he mustered enough strength to whisper, “Good to see you.”

Sadly, those were the last words he spoke.  Of course I like to imagine that more than a greeting for me, his words were mostly a rehearsal for the first thing he said to his Savior when he was taken to Glory on Saturday morning—but spoken in Jesus’ presence with the power of emotion that exists only between friends who both know the joy that comes after one’s final suffering.

Or maybe his last words were the first words he heard after he was taken from the arms of his loved ones here and received into the arms of that great Lover of our souls—just before hearing,  “Well done, good and faithful servant!”  Had he been able to sing in those last hours, Don might well have made the words of Charles Wesley his final song:

Jesus, lover of my soul, let me to Thy bosom fly,
While the nearer waters roll, while the tempest still is high.
Hide me, O my Savior, hide, till the storm of life is past;
Safe into the haven guide; O receive my soul at last.

Good bye, my brother Don.   See you in Glory!

Dean

Don Hamilton’s obituary

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