The Day I Died...The Day I live

My godmother, Debbie Jenkins, is a woman of few words in many cases. So, when she speaks, I listen, because there is something that must be heard. I have seen this woman live when people said she would not. I have seen her and her husband overcome numerous battles in the many years that I have known them. Miracles are nothing new to them, as the two of them are walking embodiments of miracles themselves. Now, she is also a woman who needs no introduction, but I just want to say that this blog post is copied by me, from her own words. A testimony that she has, and that will forever be in my mind, in my memory. I will never forget the day I got the phone call, where I was, what I was doing. When I answered my phone, sitting at the drive through window of Dairy Queen in Metropolis, my world turned upside down and back again multiple times with the words that were spoken from the other end of the line… “Becca…Debbie died today…”

And now, the story written by Debbie herself.

I would like to share with you how God blessed me on July 30, 2010, during my battle with Ovarian Cancer. This was the day I was to go in for chemo-therapy. We knew that typically I would be okay for a few hours following the treatment, but that I would be quite sick for the next few weeks. This was normal for the type of treatments that I was receiving. We arrived a few minutes early and the nurse connected the lines to my port. As I was about to finish the first drug administration I told the nurse I needed to use the restroom. She asked if I could wait until she started the next drug. I said I could, and she began the next drug treatment. After she got it going I went right into the restroom.

All at once I felt a fiery sensation going down both legs, and this was extremely painful. Just as quickly, I felt that same fire going to my head. I knew then that I was in trouble, so I opened the door and yelled for the nurse. When she got to the door and saw the state I was in, she yelled, “Oh, my God! Deb!” She then yelled for her helper…and this is the last thing I remember of that event. In the next instant I saw the most BEAUTIFUL bright light!!

Words cannot describe the beauty of this light! I felt the most wonderful peace, like the peace that surpasses all understand, spoken of in the Bible! I was in the presence of God! I know that the light was the Glory of God, and the peace that I felt was from Him also. I could feel myself drawing closer to that light, that comforting, warm light. Breaking into that moment, suddenly, I heard a voice calling my name, “Deb! Deb!” In my heart I knew this was Clayton, my husband, and he was hurting, deeply. Then, I heard another voice saying to me, It is okay. You can go back now. I still have work for you and your husband to do.”

At that moment I heard voices. “I have no response! I still have no response!” I felt pressure on my chest, like an elephant siting on me. I took my hand, and moved the object that was causing the pressure off of my chest. A voice then said, “I have a response! I have a response!” The medical team began working on me, hooking up the life support machines, attaching the tubes and devices that would breathe for me for a time. All I could think about while they were working to keep me alive was my husband. I needed to see him! I needed to know he was okay, and I wanted to ask him if he was sitting beside me, calling out my name. This was not to happen…yet.

The next thing I recall is being in a room, hooked up to these machines, with something in my mouth, preventing my ability to speak to anyone. My husband was standing there, looking so sad and lost. It was that look in his eyes that I will never forget, because it was that look that I could hear when I heard my name called out. I was on life support for three days. When they took me off life support, my husband was right there, as he never left my side. My first words to him were the words I had been needing so badly to ask. “Honey, were you standing right by me, calling out my name?” He looked at me. “No.” He said. “They had put me and everyone else out into the hallway. They called a code blue, and it took several minutes for everyone to get in there to get things moved around to work on you. The medical team came out and told me you were dead. They asked me what I wanted them to do. I told them to do all that they could. So the nurse went back in, and in my heart I began to call your name, ‘Deb. Deb!’ and then I prayed for you.” I looked at my husband, into his eyes, and I said, “I heard you. The Lord allowed me to hear you crying out my name, and I could feel your pain. The Lord then told me that I could come back because He still had work for you and I to do.”

While I was still in the hospital, the man who performed CPR on me came to visit me. He said that he could not believe he was standing and talking, and laughing with me. He said that he has been in this profession for 25 years, and that the other patients who were gone as long as I was could not talk or function because they had irreparable brain damage, or were deceased.

Later, my chemo-therapy nurse visited me and shared her side of the event of that day. She came into the bathroom when I called to her, and immediately saw that I was in bad shape. She sat me down and called for help. Then she said that I had stopped breathing, so she began working on me to get me breathing again. Soon they called the code blue, because I was gone. She informed me that I had died twice while they were with me in that restroom. The second time I died, they noted the time and went out of the room to find Clayton and let him know that I was gone. After talking with my husband, the nurse came back into the room. She said that when she got back in there, suddenly my hand came up and took the hand of the man performing CPR on me, and as I emphatically declared, “Now that will be enough of that!” I threw his hand off of me. At that moment, the moment the silence was broken, everyone began to laugh. They told me that I had been dead, declared dead, for 15 minutes.

I was dead. They had to inform my husband. When informed, my husband began to pray to God for me. When the nurse told me I had died, and that they had to tell him, and he prayed, this is what I felt, and what I know…The Scriptures say “The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much” (James 5:16). This came to me as she was telling me her account of that day. I thank God every day for my husband, and for each new day that I am here to live, and share my testimony!!! I will tell my story to ALL who will listen. While you are able, you must make the decision about where you want to spend eternity, because you never know when you will draw your last breath. When you take that last breath, you will not be able to change your mind! You will either spend your time in the light with God, or in the darkness. I pray that you will choose an eternity with God. I am telling you, I know there is a God who cares for you. Just reach out to Him. I hope to see YOU in Heaven!

Debbie Jenkins