Don’t let your heart be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many homes. If it weren’t so, I would have told you.
I am going to prepare a place for you.
If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will receive you to myself; that where I am, you may be there also.
John 14:1 – 3 World English Bible
This post is written in remembrance of the passing away of my mother one and a half years ago on 01Jan2023.
I began writing these notes on Fri 30Dec2022, two days before she died, as I pondered over the Providence of God during difficult and worrisome circumstances, trying to come to terms with the fact that my critically ill mother was near the end of her life, but not knowing that she would breathe her last, two days later.
I go prepare a place for you
As much as our Lord Iesus the Anointed One has gone to his Father's house to prepare a place for us, I have come to realise that the Lord also prepares places for us to take refuge as we sojourn in this world each day of our lives.
Five years ago, my mother broke her legs when she fell down, first her right leg in May2016, then again her left leg in April 2017. She couldn't walk after surgery, had to be wheel chair bound, and cared for in a nursing home.
However, after a few months, the nursing home, Kinta Medical Centre, discharged her with 24 hours notice because of her disruptive behaviour. I was put in a quandary because I was unable to care for her at home.
Thu 26Oct2017
The Lord prepared a place for my mother at a another nursing home, Jln Bunga Raya, just one day after she was kicked out of Kinta Medical Centre.
This new centre, recommended by our visiting psychiatrist, was in an old neighbourhood in Pasir Pinji, along Jln Bunga Raya, a road that we were not familiar with. We would have been lost that Wednesday afternoon under such pressing circumstance, having to look for the nursing home in a strange place at very short notice.
However, the Lord had prepared us beforehand by leading us to Jalan Bunga Raya by chance a few days earlier as we were driving towards Station 18.
The name of the road rang a bell because an old classmate from Form 1, Anglo-Chinese School Lahat Rd, stayed at house no. 151 Jln Bunga Raya in 1972. That day, we drove along the entire stretch of road trying to find my classmates old house but somehow missed it.
So a few days later, when psychiatrist Dr Gurmit asked us to go to the nursing home at Jalan Bunga Raya on Wed 25Oct2017, we already knew the way!
Fast forward — five years have passed, with my wheelchair bound mother under the care of this nursing home, now called Lotus Care Centre
Sat 17Dec22
The Lord prepared a place for my mother in Ward 5B at Ipoh Hospital.
Earlier that Saturday morning, my mother was sent to the Emergency Dept of Ipoh Hospital for severe shortness of breath, gasping for air. She was triaged into the Red Zone as a critical patient.
At that time the Ipoh Hospital Emergency Dept was badly overcrowded and it took a long time for doctors to attend to her.
The next day, her condition being somewhat stabilised, she was transferred to the Enhanced Care Ward in the Yellow Zone. The medical wards upstairs were full and there were no vacant beds to admit my mother.
The Lord sent my classmate's daughter who is a Medical Officer in the hospital to visit my mother and managed to find a bed for her in Ward 5B upstairs.
Thankfully, she was transferred to Ward 5B that night of Sun 18Dec22, where more specific treatment of her condition, initially diagnosed as acute kidney injury and sepsis secondary to pneumonia and dehydration, could be carried out.
She was discharged from Ward 5B on Thu 22Dec22, but admitted to Emergency for shortness of breath again the next day!
Fri 23Dec22
The Lord prepared a place for my mother at Bed 4 of Cardiology Ward.
She was discharged from Cardiology Ward on Tue 27Dec22, but again had to be transported back to Emergency for Shortness Of Breath the next day . . .
Wed 28Dec22
The Lord prepared a place for me at my anxious moments.
- The Lord prepared a place for available time in Pastor's busy schedule to accommodate my sudden and somewhat untimely call for help.
- The Lord prepared a train ticket for her to come over to Ipoh that afternoon when she was unwell and couldn't drive.
- The Lord prepared a vacant parking lot at the busy road outside the Ipoh Railway Station while waiting for Pastor to arrive.
- Later, the Lord prepared a vacant lot for my car at the crowded car park in front of the Emergency Dept.
Thu 29Dec22
The Lord prepared a place for my mother at the Palliative Care Unit.
Finally, the Lord prepared a place for my mother to rest at the Palliative Care Unit where she spent the last four days of her life.
Today, I believe that the Lord has prepared one more place for my mother —
- a place where she no longer has to suffer
- a place where there is neither illness nor hunger nor pain.
- a place where heart soul is free from all troubles
"Let not your hearts be troubled," says our Lord, "you believe in God, believe in also in me, in my Father's house are many mansions, I go to prepare for you"
I believe the Lord Jesus has prepared a final resting place for my mother.
May her soul rest in peace.
