THE SADDEST DAY OF MY LIFE . . . July 19, 2020 . . . THE DAY MY DARLING HUSBAND OF 51 YEARS, Rickey Paul Ray, WENT HOME TO HEAVEN!!

Rickey Ray’s . . . Going home to Heaven July 19, 2020 . . . Before and After !!! MY CHRISTIAN MANTRA God is in control. We ask His will, for he and he alone knows what is best. We don’t know exactly which way things will go.  We do know FOR SURE our God is still on the throne and no matter what comes or what goes, He will make it right for His children!!!   A few notes of my Rick’s home going: - “Amazing Grace”. Several days before Rick was called home, be was in bed but quite agitated. He would try to get out of bed. If he had stood up he would have collapsed for sure because his legs could no longer support him. I was trying to calm him down and get him to relax and stay in bed. I started singing some hymns to him. When I started singing “Amazing Grace” his hands quieted down, he laid his hands on his stomach, and settled right down. I changed to another hymn and he started getting agitated again. I went back to “Amazing Grace” at least four times, and every time he quieted down completely, and then he went to sleep. A true miracle of God's grace. - The last three nights before going to Heaven, Rick was not responsive. I whispered in his ear several times that, “I love you very much, but If Jesus comes and wants you to go with him, you go. I will be fine. Jen is with me and I’m with her . . . and we will take care of each other." Then I said, “ remember, there’s no time in heaven. So when you walk through those pearly gates, turn around and Jen and I will be right behind you!” - One or two nights before Rick went home to Jesus, I guess I was almost at my wits end. I prayed, “Please, please dear Father, heal him and let him stay here with me OR heal him and take him home!!” Sunday morning, July 19, 2020, between midnight and 2 am Jesus came and took my darling Rick to his Heavenly home. - My niece Becky’s baby girls love Rick. They visited a few months before Rick became bedridden, and as their car headed home, we heard them yelling, “I love you Rick, I love you Rick.” When he died, I was worried about them. They called on FaceTime, after Rick died. Karson, the baby, got on the phone and said, “Hi aunt Judy where’s Rick.” Then, I talked with both Sydney and Karson on FaceTime. I got real excited and said, “Guess what. Rick has gone to heaven and I bet they’re having a party right now!!!.” Then it sounded like Karson ran from the phone telling everyone, Uncle Ricks having a party !!!! - The other night I dreamed about my sweet darling Rick. I was asleep in my recliner. He stood on my lefthand side, leaned over, and was looking at me intently, as if to see if I was alright. It was only a few seconds long, but exactly like he would have been doing in life . . . making sure I am OK and safe! - On the afternoon of August 14, 2020, . . . about a month after Rick went to Heaven . . . I was straightening up our master bathroom. I decided to switch my face towel holder for Rick’s face towel holder because his was in better condition. As I went to pick it up I noticed something on one of the arms where it attached to the stock of the device.  - Then I realized it was rick’s wedding band. I completely broke down because I knew that he had placed it there knowing that he was going to go to Heaven and that it would be me that would find it. Then I thought, well maybe the hospice people gave it to Jennifer and she put it on the rod. Later that day I was talking with her and I asked if hospice had given her her father’s wedding band. She said, “no”. So my firm belief is Rick left it there for me to find as a comfort for what I am going through . . . or Jesus let Rick come back and leave it for me so that I would know that everything is fine. - Remember those vowels from so many years ago. Long ago Rick and I decided since there is no marriage in heaven, we plan to be “bff’s” there! Judy Ray 2 Corinthians 1:3-6 Praise to the God of All Comfort 3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. 5 For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. 6 If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer.