Today is Tuesday, February 2nd, 2016; Karen's Korner #3237

A week plus ago, my friend Bev Downs lost her mother. It wasn't unexpected mom was 95 years old. The last few years Phyllis began to enter into a world with a foggy memory. But death is still death and there is loss.

At Phyllis' funeral, Bev shared a story of her time surrounding mom's death. "Dad worked for the railroad, we could ride for free on the passenger train that ran between Omaha and Minneapolis with a stop in Clarion," she said. "Beginning when I was about ten, on occasion Mom and I would board the train sometime in the middle of the night and arrive in Minneapolis about 8 in the morning. We  would spend the day. In the evening, board again for the return trip home."

Fast forward to Phyllis' final days, "I was siting with Mom the evening she was  admitted to Hospice," said Bev. "She was resting comfortably , it had been a long day and her nurse encouraged me to go home to get some rest.

As I left the facility, I heard a train whistle in the distance. I can remember saying, 'Mom, get on that train and go.'

Bev continued that the train caused her to stop at the crossing and wait for it to go by. "I hadn't taken my coat off when the nurse called to tell me mom had passed," she said. Upon returning to the facility, the nurse told Bev she had gone in to check on Mom right after Bev had left. Phyllis was gone.

Bev believes the timing was nearly the same as when she released Mom to ' get on the train and go'.
"I believe she got on the train for the first part of her journey to heaven," she said.


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