Russel's Soul Departs For Heaven

After a seventeen-month-long battle with Metastatic Melanoma Cancer, my husband, Russel, passed away in the early hours of the morning, on our Twenty Seventh Wedding Anniversary. Even when Russel's passing appeared to be imminent, I did not imagine that he would go to heaven on this day.

Devastation! That is the only word that I can find to describe how it felt to lose Russ. It was very difficult to accept, for so many reasons. Up until a couple of weeks before he died, Russel believed that he was going to recover and survive. He desperately wanted to continue with his life on this earth.

I was not properly prepared for Russel's passing and I never said the word, "Goodbye". In my spirit I had never stopped hoping and believing for a healing miracle. My heart was set on God raising Russ up out of his sick bed into wholeness, new health and life and restoring his body, mind and soul to a state of wellness, better than he had ever been before.

Clearly God had another plan and decided that it was time to take Russel to his heavenly home. I was reminded by loved ones that ultimately we received two miracles while Russ was still with us. During his last couple of months, he had absolutely no pain in his body at all. It was also about two weeks before he passed that Russel accepted Christ into his heart.

Realising that we had received these two obvious miracles helped me to hang onto my faith in spite of my anguish that Russ was not healed in this life and that he left me to be with The Lord.

Russ had so many regrets, it made me very sad. When he became ill, he suddenly realised that life is very short and there were so many things he had not done. Russel became acutely aware that he had short-changed himself and his family by spending so little time with them during his fourteen-year life in America.

While he lived in America Russ worked at the same dental lab for all that time. I was unable to spend all my time with him there for various reasons, family, finances and other necessary choices. But Russel was settled and enjoyed life in Port Charlotte.

He enjoyed living in the condo complex where we had our home. He made friends with everyone he came into contact with and he was dearly loved wherever he went. In the absence of his own family, these friends, and those he worked, with became his family. Russel lived the life of a happy bachelor.

The warm weather was one of the reasons Russ loved Florida so much and he enjoyed the outdoor life. He loved the beach and took lessons in kiteboarding. Russel had always been a keen runner and cyclist, which kept him fit and trim. During his last few years in Port Charlotte Russ had developed a love for flying his kite whenever the wind was strong.

When Russel first discovered that he had Melanoma in 2012, we were confident that his cancer had been caught early and it had not spread. Both of us believed that he was fine and would continue to live and enjoy life.

At the end of March 2013, our daughter got married. That was a special day in Russel’s life, as he proudly walked her down the aisle on her wedding day. He looked so well. Full of health and vitality. Russ loved every moment of the week he spent with us before wedding and his return to America.

Just over a year later, on 19 April 2014, while I was visiting our family in South Africa, Russel had a brain seizure which landed him in hospital. After various tests, it was discovered that the Melanoma had indeed spread and it was in his brain and lungs and on his spleen. Russ described receiving this news as “a death sentence”.

Due to our lack of financial resources and the fact that we now had no more income and were about to become homeless and lose everything, we decided to return to South Africa to accept the help offered to us by our loving family.

Sadly, none of the treatment Russel received helped him with his situation and after bravely fighting for seventeen months, he succumbed to the scourge of cancer and passed away.

Russ was survived by myself, his wife, and our daughter and son. He will be sorely missed, but we are grateful that we know where he is right now. We all believe that Russel is in heaven with Our Lord and that we will see him again one day.

On the day of his passing, I posted the following on Facebook :

Dearest family and friends around the globe. Thank you for your kind words, thoughts and condolences. I know that my Russel is no longer suffering and safe in the arms of Jesus. It does not take away my sense of loss and a broken heart filled with deep sorrow and unbearable grief. I could never have imagined that a human being could cope with such excruciating emotional pain. But even in this sad time of mourning I find comfort in the Word of God.

This I know, from 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 (NIV) - 13 Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. 14 For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. 15 According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.

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