Thursday

On July 1 at 12:20 pm Janice gave the go ahead to have James disconnected from the vent. Both Janice and Dara were there, along with Carl and Mary Etta, James' brother and sister-in-law, myself and one of James' nephews, Kenneth. James lasted 25 minutes. God, it was hard to watch him go, but he had meant a lot to me as a teenager when I lived in Devine. Externally, he was calm and peaceful, but it was from watching the monitor that I was able to see the internal struggle that still raged within him. He was a man full of life and it was still so precious to him that he held on till the last possible second.

After James passed I took a burden off of Janice and called all the family and made sure that they all were informed. The hospital had to call various agencies first before the funeral home so Janice and Dara waited at the hospital. I took my leave and headed to Dunlay, to get ready for Pat's Viewing.

Pat's Viewing was there in Hondo, at Guinn Horger, the whole congregation of New Fountain Methodist Church turned out. I saw both Cody and Jake there and they remembered me, with was warming, plus so many others there that I had been introduce to by Pat and Eddie that knew me by sight but my memory failed to recognized.