Now before I reveal my Father in laws last words that I will never ever forget, I want to back up a moment and try to bring you in on the on goings of that night. I had been at our restaurant all day and around 5pm that evening I heard a gentle persuasion say, Go visit your father in law this evening. Well I went......
I went to the hospital where he was and into the room to visit him. There my mother in law was with Coach Doyle (MY FATHER IN LAW) and at my entrance into the room I could not help but notice that coach was breathing some what louder than normal. I greeted Mrs. Doyle with a hug, then I walked over to Coach to greet this man who was so dear to so many. He had been our local High School Coach for around 17 years in times past, who also experienced success in the restaurant business after retiring from the public school system. Actually he prospered very well. The ol football coach became a local success story. He earned ever penny of it with faith and alot of work; with commitment and strong determination. Coach would have it no other way. What a great Patriot and Great American Coach was.
Coach was a strong handsome man. Our states Governor at the time, Gov. Roamer, used to come to Coaches house now and then along with Jack Doland our states representative in those days (HIS BEST FRIEND). Coach just had a presence about him. All that knew him know what I am saying here. When he walked in the room it was like Ceasar or General Patton just showed up or just walked in. Strong and Stout he was and also Coach was always one of the sharpest dressed men in town. He was not one to play with words or waste them and boy did he know how to straighten you up when you got out of line. Believe me I know. He was my father in law who was also BOSS. People around here that he coached and people that he was the principal over, still tell the stories of coaches incredible talent with that whipping paddle, which was actually a TITANIC BOARD. When it struck, lightning flashed,lol. You cannot forget an experience like that. Nor can I or any of us who knew him forget coach for many other reasons, but time right now does not allow the elaboration.........
Well as I walked up to coaches bed side I smiled and said Hey Coach. He looked back at me with a look of concern and said, Pray for me Deno. They had told me not to cry around him during the visit, but those words I failed. I broke down bawling. I did'nt know what to do. I could not stop the tears. Nose was running and everything. For lack of knowing what to do I darted over to the curtain of that hospital room and pulled those curtains around me as if that could keep coach from seeing me. Well it did not and when I finally got a better holt on my emotions I went back over to coach to chat. Again, pray for me Deno, so in my own way I did.
Now Mrs Doyle had been there days on end and she asked me would I stay with coach for awhile while she went home to freshen up etc and I replied, Sure Mrs Doyle. She walked over to coach, said her love words and good by and told him she would be back. After that she came back over to me, hugged me and left the room.
Well time was passing by and few words were shared due to his condition. Then little by little doctors, nurses and a pharmacist, which was a close friend to the family came in to visit and to check on coach. Seconds turned into minutes, minutes turned into a couple of hours and suddenly Coach took a turn for the worse. His breathing you could tell was being interfered with. Fluid kept entering his lungs at a rate that it was getting hard for the nurses and that tube to keep up. The pharmacist whose name is Gary, being close to our family grabbed me by the arm and said, Deno lets go outside the room for a moment. Well I went with him and Gary said, Deno coach is about to go. He's dying. The fluid is building up in his lungs now to fast. Go call Mrs Doyle and tell them I said its very important that they get back up here as soon as possible. Gary, I said. Are you serious? He said yes Deno. Ok I replied and I went and called Mrs Doyle and told her what Gary the pharmacist said. She said ok and she called the rest of the family.
Meanwhile I went back over towards the room and Gary met me again at the outside door entrance and said. Deno Coach is going kind of fast. Your the family member and you need to be by his side if he is to depart now. He will be straining in his breathing due to the fluid, so be strong. You need to be there. Well to be honest with you I wanted to be by his side, but I was much younger in those days and I had never watched anyone pass on to the other side, so I was a little nervous about it. I loved coach. All he had ever been to me was good, but still I felt seeing him go was beyond my strength. But by love I took in a deep breath and even though a part of me did not want to watch this, some how I got my nerves together for him and went back in that room and walked back up to coach at his bedside. He was now struggling. He was in the fighting for air mode. His chest now very little rising, but his neck was expanding out and in with every force of air intake that coach was trying to take in. He looked at me for what I thought could be his and my final eye to eye contact in this life and in a rough whisper he said again, "Pray for me deno"
Somewhere in all of that I did lift up a prayer for him but coaches day to go and be with God I guess had come. He slowly with the forced breathing that he some how was managing to do, his eyes began to gaze upon the ceiling above. Like a child I watched and followed his gaze with Gary right next to me and others in the room which included hospital staff. Struggling but some how still breathing and gasping for air Coaches eyes set looking up at the ceiling. As his eyes sat their staring at the above and no more blinking, a very quiet moment and mood entered the room. You could hear coach breathing but some how its like our hearing was deaf to his strain now. Staring, staring, not one single blink of his eyes. THEY WERE NOW COMPLETELY SET. NO BLINKING. NO MOVING, fixed on the ceiling....then it happened.....Words were fixing to be spoken out of coaches mouth that no matter what would come to be in my future and no matter how many times I would try to shake them off of me I COULD'NT. THEY GRIPPED ME WITH A GRIP THAT TO THIS DAY AT TIMES THEY SHAKE ME AND MAKE THE WATER FALL FROM MY EYES.
Some how, some way Coach found the strength to take his unmoving, unblinking eyes off of that ceiling above and it seemed as if some how, someway God injected into my father in law grace for one last verbal Coach Doyle life sermon to his son in law. He could have looked at anyone in that room. Several were there. But no, it was to be me he would come out of his coma so to speak and speak his last words to while starring deeply into my eyes. When he looked at me I was shocked. I had figured he was basically gone or at least half way out the room. Coach turned to me, Looked me straight in the eyes and said these final last words of his on earth, He said, DENO, WHO DID YOU GO TELL? WHO DID YOU GO TELL?...Must I say more. I turned to Gary because Coach startled me for one and secondly because those words griped me mightily as I was wondering what he meant by them. Coach what do you mean by that? What are you trying to tell me? Coach, Gary, please somebody, anybody, please tell me what and why my father in law said those words to me. I was left to ponder those words in my heart even to this day and what coach fully meant by them and their purpose. After he looked at me and said them, he never said another word. His eyes went back up to the ceiling and stayed there till he departed.
From time to time from that moment on into my future those 5 words have been so powerful in my head that I have tossed and turned over them and their meaning wondering why he said them to me and what their real purpose was for? GOD KNOWS. After those words coach never spoke another word on earth. WHO DID YOU GO TELL
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Now follow me on in this light with those words in mind..........then after the man in the bible whom Jesus had set free from a legion of mean evil spirits, the man enjoying Jesus turning his bitter into tremendous sweet came up to Jesus and said. Lord I will follow you anywhere. I will go with you to the ends of the earth. Jesus replied to that man. World evangelist is not my will for you BUT THIS IS. Go And Tell, Go And Tell, Go And Tell your family and local community how the Lord had mercy upon you and how He had great compassion on you. Be a living every day living letter of Jesus Christ unto them the rest of your life. The man went and obeyed. He went and did as Jesus commanded him. And that obedience my friends was just as big of him to Jesus as the man who obeys God that was and is called to go in to all the world and preach the gospel.
Friends our local testimonies and our local testifying and our local serving the Lord is so important to Jesus. The Lord has done for many of us many wonderful things starting at the cross, into the fellowship of his sufferings, into the delicious word of God being taught to us by our elders. Surely we can find something to brag on Jesus about. He's really the only one really deserving and worthy to be bragged on and boasted about. We have flaws, Jesus is FLAWLESS. He Is Jesus the Lord from heaven who became a man. Who loved us and gave himself for us to save us from our sin and from the wrath to come.
So friends in Christ I say to you that short but so powerful sermon of only 5 words that my father in law preached to me that night which was his last words spoken on earth, WHO DID YOU GO TELL ? Lets start preparing ourselves the list. For one day by Jesus Christ those words will be required of us all....Love you In Christ....Deno....please share freely...and please now listen to the Don Francisco Song that is above. It will bless you. Its title is...I'VE GOT TO TELL SOMEBODY.......AMEN
