Dear Friends, Thursday, December 2nd, 67 days after his liver surgery at OHSU, Bill died peacefully at 1:20 p.m. After 3 1/2 weeks of critically low blood pressure, 6 doctors became convinced, as did I, that there was no hope of Bill's physical recovery short of a miracle, and that he was going to die. The day before Bill's surgery his last written request was that if he was to become terminally ill, he did not want to be left on life support. Since he assigned me as his health care representative, I found myself asking God how will I know WHEN. Then, Wednesday, December 1st, a friend who had received many songs and other gifts of healing for Bill, had a dream that Bill's body and spirit were attached by a golden umbilical cord, and that for his spirit to be free, the umbilical cord had to be cut. Ordinarily Bill would cut his own cord, but because of the machines, he was unable to do so. He needed our help to cut the cord by removing the life support. That Wednesday night we had a family meeting with the doctor and nurse. We decided to follow Bill's wishes the next day after family had more time with him. He received morphine and Versed medicines, so that he would be unconscious without pain, and then only the blood pressure medicines were turned off. We felt that left room for a miracle if God chose to eliminate the most life threatening part of Bill's illness. We're having 2 memorials to accommodate different schedules: Saturday, December 4th at 3p.m. at Reedwood Friends Church 2901 S.E. Steele (between 29th and 30th) near Reed College across from Eastmoreland Park Hospital Sunday, December 12th at 3p.m. at West Hills Friends Church *Click here for maps of area. 7425 S.W. 52nd (off Maplewood, a diagonal street) (between Vermont and Multnomah; a few blocks west of Gabriel Park) We're welcoming people to attend either memorial. If you wish, come ready to share about Bill and even to bring a picture of Bill that you'd like others to see. (If you'd like to keep it, be sure to put your name on back and take it with you when you leave.) Bill's memorial web site is no longer at: <http://www.teleport.com/~jbdubois/Bill_DuBois.shtml> [The site has been moved to <http://www.compassions-doorway.com> Look in Other Resources for the link to Bill's page.] It's my Christmas present to Bill and will begin with info. about the memorials and build into a tribute. We will be soliciting pictures, anecdotes, etc. to be emailed to Jeanine DuBois at jbdubois@teleport.com. [Now you can reach Jeanine here.] I look forward to having time to spend with you in the not too distant future. For now, it's a busy time getting ready for tomorrow's memorial. Always my love, --Jeanine

This page was updated on 12/9/99.

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