On February 27th a little after lunch time I received a message from my mom via wifi at Mcdonald’s telling me that my grandfather (her father), J. Lee Brittain, had either a massive heart attack or a stroke and was at the hospital. This was a complete shock to me as well as the rest of my family. Grandaddy was 73 and has been working on his dairy farm for at least 40 years. While he was getting older it was a shock to hear that this had happened to him.
Despite the shock I knew that God had something in plan for all of this and I knew that he would be fine. As the evening continued we found out that he had a massive heart attack. My mom said that she thought he was surly gone before EMS got to him, but they were able to revive him and put him on a ventilator and he was holding on for dear life. As sad or cruel as it sounds we were all anticipating him passing away before the night was over.
As more time passed by the Doctors were able to determine that he had 3 severe places of colon cancer and a spot on his lung. They were considering a number of options to try and bring him back and perform surgery, but the doctors feared that he wouldn’t survive any operation. So, at 7:15pm on February 27th my family determined that the best possible solution would be to take him off of the ventilator and let him be at peace.
Reminiscing on his life the past few days I came to realize many things about him: He taught me how to work: Growing up less than a mile from his dairy farm he often allowed me to help him with little tasks around the farm. From putting up fences, chopping wood, cleaning stalls, and picking up hay I got my work ethic from working with him.
Him and my dad took me on a fishing trip up in Canada one summer and he taught me how to drive the boat. I never will forget the terror in his eyes the first time I grabbed ahold of the throttle and let it go full blast! While J. was a strong old man he had a horrid fear of water and couldn’t swim. I see now that he was willing to take a risk and let me have an experience with him that I never will forget.
Grieving this process while on the field has not been easy by any means and I’ve considered going home for the funeral more than a few times. But I know that isn’t something he would want me to do. He would rather me stay here, grow by pushing into the hard things, and learn to love people and God. I know that I am exactly where God wants me right now despite the pains and hardships I am going through and I’m thankful for the opportunity to experience God’s grace and love in an all new way.
