In 1980 there was a famous Olympic hockey game played between the United States and Russia.  It was called the “Miracle on Ice.” Only a week before the Olympics in an exhibition game between the Russians and the United States, the Russians destroyed the young US team by a score of 12-0.  The US team was lucky to make it to the medal round, but things looked mighty dim when it was determined that the mighty Russians would be matched up against the United States team.  There wasn’t even the slightest of chances that the US could prevail over the mighty Russians.  It would take a miracle. Al Michaels was the announcer on that fateful day.  As the game wore on the Americans were playing out of their mind.  They actually had the lead by one goal when there were only seconds left to play.  It was at this moment that Al Michaels said to millions of people watching this game “Do you believe in Miracles”??  then, he paused for several seconds as the clock ticked off the final seconds 3, 2, 1, then, all he said was “Yessssss” 

I believe in Miracles.  God provides miracles everyday.   I want to tell you my story about the glorious miracles that I have witnessed. 

This saga actually begins August 1st. 2002.  That was the day that Dr. Joseph Schwartz our family physician called Lana and I to inform us that Lana’s test results indicated that she had cancer.  He suspected that it was ovarian cancer.  Our life was forever changed from that moment in time.  I am not going to chronicle the entire journey that Lana and I had from that moment forward other than to say that Lana made hundreds of journal entries detailing her most precious, scary, enlightening, and god inspired thoughts.  Lana truly walked with Jesus on her final journey.  I was privileged to be with Lana as I saw her faith in God grow so dramatically. 

I have heard it said that the true test of a person’s character is how they handle themselves under adversity.  Lana and I believe that God tests your faith in him by giving you adversity so that you can let God be in control of your life.  I eagerly accepted the role of supporter, comforter, driver to medical visits, consultant, encourager, and Lana knew that I was going to be by her side forever.  I prayed for a miracle.  I prayed for God to heal her.   We visited doctors, hospitals, oncology departments, specialists, nurses, she had multiple surgeries, chemo treatments, CT scans, MRI’s, X-ray’s, Ultra sounds, and for 4 years over 13 different types of chemo treatments some lasting 6 months some lasting only 2 weeks.  Lana was told by several of her doctors that ovarian cancer had a six-month to 1-year life expectancy.  Lana had only one thing to say, “God is in control”  “all is well with my soul”  “my place is guaranteed in heaven” I just worry about the family.  This was such a common theme from her she probably said it 100 times during the last 4 years. 

Lana of course lived well beyond the original 1-year diagnosis and that is because she had not finished her purpose here on this earth.  Lana touched many, many, many people, she made such a difference in so many peoples lives.  I was married to Lana for 34 years.  The last 4 years were the greatest and most fulfilling time we ever had together.  Our love for each other was the highest two people can have.  Our faith in God never wavered.  God gave us 34 glorious years together.

In our many years of marriage Lana was a worrier, not about herself (she knew she was going to heaven), but she worried about her family, are they safe? Are they healthy, is her elderly mom ok?  Is her single sister ok, is her niece in Italy ok, is her niece in Chico ok, are the grandkids going to be ok, will Julia find a husband, you can see a pattern here.  As the family grew up and moved away from our home and my job had me on the road doing a lot of driving from place to place Lana always said to all of her family” make sure to call me when you get to where your going”.   “I want to know that you are safe.”  During the last 4 years Lana & I traveled to a lot of places, did a lot of things, lived a lot of life together.  Whenever we went on our special trips together such as Palm Springs, San Diego, Hawaii, Monterrey or Tahoe she would always say to other family members “I’ll call you when I get there.” 

During the last 4 years I did not want to bring up the subject of dying with Lana.  I felt that I should stay on the encouragement side trying to point out the chemo successes, helping her manage her medicines, and being with her as I took her to hundreds of medical visits we were a team.  Lana brought up the subject of dying and her place in heaven many, many times.  I always wanted to say to Lana I know you are going to heaven when it’s your time but could you give me some signal to acknowledge that.  I always knew that there would be a time for that discussion, but, as Lana’s final days sprang upon the family and Lana’s ability to communicate verbally quickly disappeared, I never had the opportunity to make a plan with her to give me some kind of signal that she was ok and that she was in heaven.  I knew that I would have to rely on my faith in God. 

The last 10 days of Lana’s life was a whirlwind of activity, The entire family and so many friends and neighbors worked tirelessly to keep her comfortable, support her, pray with her, sing songs with her as her body deteriorated and needed constant care 24/7.  Several times during these final days Lana told the family, myself, and the pastor Mark Godshall that she wanted to go home, she was ready to go home.  We all continued to pray for a miracle healing but we also prayed for her to go home when God was ready to take her.   Lana had made it clear that she wanted me her husband of 34 years to be by her side at our home when she finally went to heaven.  It was my honor and privilege to have been able to do that. 

In the few days prior to Lana going home she became increasingly less able to communicate verbally.  In fact, she could barely whisper one word answers, such as, Yes, No or just move her head up or down.  On Monday June 5th sometime after 11pm Lana gave the four people that were in the room with her (Julia, Crystal, Patrick – Julia’s Boyfriend who Lana helped to accept Jesus as his savior), and myself an acknowledgement of Jesus opening the door to Heaven.  She sat up from her bed in a voice level that all could hear quite clearly in the room she exclaimed “The Light”, “The Light”, “The Light”.  She then settled back in her bed never saying another word.  Not grasping the significance of the moment Crystal, Julia and I thought Lana was trying to tell us to turn out the overhead light, perhaps it was bothering her.  Julia reached to turn off the light switch so her mother would be comfortable. 

We all thought it quite odd that Lana had not spoken a clear word in days and yet she was able to so clearly tell us about this light.  As the family discussed this situation we realized that the light in the bedroom had been on constantly for the last 2 weeks. Lana never once complained about the light being on, why now?  why was the light making her uncomfortable?  It was then that Patrick focused us on the real significance of the moment. He was looking directly at Lana when she said this and he could see that her eyes were not  affected by the room light.  We then realized what was going on.  Jesus was opening the door to heaven he was almost finished preparing Lana’s place and for those brief precious moments he allowed Lana to tell us that she was going home soon by exclaiming “The Light”, “The Light”, “The Light”!  It was a miracle we were in the presence of Jesus, but only Lana could see the open door to Heaven.  We were all wondering what was the exact time that God allowed us to witness this miracle, no one looked at the clock, and our best guess was some time between 11:00 and 11:30 pm.  This gave me peace and reassurance that Lana was destined for eternal life. 

The evening wore on and I fell asleep beside Lana.  Julia was attending to Lana in 15 to 20 minute intervals.  Julia “my angel nurse” as Lana always referred to her, checked on Lana at 1:10 am on the morning of June 6th.  Julia assumed that she would be with her Mom at the moment she went to Heaven.  God had other plans.  Julia fell asleep after her final check at 1:10 am.  She said later that something woke her up and that it sounded like my pager going off.  My pager is always set to vibrate mode so that it would not disturb anyone with loud ringing noise.  This vibrating noise was just enough to wake Julia and by the time she got up and went into the bedroom it was 1:37 am.  Julia noticed immediately that Lana was not breathing.  She woke me up and I immediately checked Lana for breathing and a heartbeat.  There was none Julia and I knew she was gone.  We were all very saddened, Julia was particularly distraught that she was not with her Mom when she died.  I reminded her that Lana had told all of us several different times that she just wanted me by her side when she went home.  This comforted Julia a little bit but she desperately wanted to know the exact time that she died and I found myself wishing that I had been able to ask Lana to some how show us that she was in Heaven. 

From that moment until Saturday June 10th the family and myself were all very busy making arrangements for the Lana’s memorial service.  Lana wanted it to be a celebration of her life, we gladly obliged. Throughout the week I was constantly annoyed by my malfunctioning pager.  I had left it sitting on my dresser in the bedroom and it seemed like each time I would go into the room the pager would act up and vibrate very strangely.  I would always check the display monitor to see if someone was calling me, but each time I would check, it was always the same “No Message came up in the display” this was very odd.  I planned to call my pager service provider on Monday and order a replacement for this crazy pager.  I just couldn’t deal with that issue at the moment.  I had Lana’s memorial service to get prepared.  The memorial service was a beautiful tribute to my wife who I love so dearly.  So many people, family, friends, neighbors, our church family, all lovingly worked together to present this touching tribute to Lana

The next day Sunday June 11th was a difficult day for me.  The family kept me busy.  I attended my Granddaughter Juliette’s Ice Skating competition early Sunday morning, then the entire family attended our church.  It was very unusual; it was the first time in my Life that I attended our church without Lana.  I cried most of the time during the service.  Pastor Dale and many members of my church came to me to console and offer condolences.  It was beautiful to see all the flowers and arrangements still present from Lana’s memorial service on Saturday. 

When I arrived home from Church I remember thinking “what now?” there was this emptiness inside my soul, something was missing, what do I do without my beautiful wife, is she really in Heaven?  I decided to start doing some necessary chores around the house and I went into my bedroom to fold some laundry and I heard my pager start vibrating.  I happen to look at the clock and it was 2:27 pm on Sunday.  As I stated previously I had been noticing all week since the day that Lana Died that my pager was acting funny.  It was vibrating as if I had a page but every time I checked the pager to get the number of who was trying to contact me it keep giving me a (No Message display).  I also notice that the pager was not vibrating like it normally did, the usual vibration was a steady 2 second vibrate then when I checked the phone number it would stop vibrating.  These (No message) pages were always different, they would sometimes be short vibrations, sometimes multiple rapid vibrations in a row, sometimes very long 4 second vibrations but they always showed the (No message display).  I also noticed that only when I was in the bedroom that the pager seemed to malfunction by paging me with this (No Message display). I had not carried the pager with me the whole week,  I just left it on my dresser since Monday evening June 5th. I was annoyed with this malfunctioning pager.  I was going to call my pager provider and asked for a replacement pager, this one was surely malfunctioning.

For some unexplainable reason I decided to reset all the setting to see if I could fix this crazy pager.  In order to reset you must first reset the time and the date.  I proceed to do this and the first thing that popped up on the display was the time 1:27 am.  I thought that was odd it was 2:27 pm not 1:27 am.  The significance of the time hit me immediately when I went to the next mode setting to reset the date.  The pager display was 6/06.  It was like a 1,000 trumpets blasting in my head.  I realized a miracle from God had just happened.   That pager was stuck at 1:27 am 6/06.  It had been stuck on that time since 1:27 am 6/06.  This was the exact time that Lana entered the Kingdom of Heaven!  Julia had first heard that pager wake her up on the fateful morning that Lana went home.  That pager was not malfunctioning the whole week, it was signaling me, it was trying to get my attention to verify that Lana was indeed “Calling me when she got there”.  She knew I needed to know that she was in Heaven.  Man oh Man did I need that!  It was a miracle!  It soothed my soul.  I can rejoice in the knowledge that she has no more pain or suffering, just God’s promise of eternal Life.

I did not have an opportunity to relay this story to Julia and Crystal until later that evening.  Julia stopped by the house to talk and tell me how much she missed her Mom.   As I listened to Julia and tried to console her she mentioned again how disappointed she was that she was not there at the exact time that Lana died or even what time that she went to Heaven.  I knew this was the time to uplift her soul and I proceed to tell her that I knew that exact time of Lana’s arrival in Heaven.  She raised her voice level with that exciting anticipation tone and demanded to know “how did I know that?”  I told her it was exactly 1:27 am.  She was really excited!  “How did I know that?” she asked again.  “Did you wake up?” Tell me she demanded excitedly.  I simply told her “Lana called me when she got to Heaven”.  She was stunned, I then proceed to tell her about the glorious miracle of God who allowed Lana to page me from Heaven.  We joked that God and Lana were having a bet on how long it would take me to figure out the miracle message of the pager.  As we talked about this wonderful miracle Julia said “I wonder what time it was when we were all in the room when Jesus started opening the door to Heaven and Lana yelled out “The Light” three times”.  At that instant the pager went off again,  this time it was two short vibrates and I trembled as I checked the display.  It was not a (No message display), but, now it was a time display that showed on the pager.  It now showed 11:10 pm on the display.  This was the time that Jesus began opening the door to Heaven for Lana. 

Another Miracle, another answer, we wondered would we hear any more from Lana through this divine pager.  We got out answer in seconds.  The pager went off again.  This time two very long vibrations, one after the other, I checked the display with eager anticipation.  What message was I going to get from Lana now?  I didn’t think I had any more questions.  The next display was another Miracle.  It showed the following 12:00 am.  The pager just jump from 11:10 pm to 12:00 am on it’s own!  Yes, really, Lana was telling Julia and I that 12:00 am means a “new beginning”, “a new day”, “a new life”, she was telling us that she was beginning her eternal new life in Heaven and we were to begin our new life here on earth.  This was the last page that I received from Heaven.  The pager has since returned to it’s normal functioning self.  I don’t really think I will ever trade that pager in.  You never know if it might malfunction again. 

Will God and Lana ever communicate to me again?  I now know the answer.  God will always speak to me I just need to open my heart and talk to God.  Will I ever see another miracle?  I now know the answer.  God provides us with miracles all the time you just have to be smart enough to always seek direction and wisdom from God and always answer the page when he calls.  Seek him often and you will always find him.   I look at this pager as the communication device that God used on the day that He and Lana spoke to me loud and clear.  I thank God for allowing me to know that I will someday be united with Lana in the Kingdom of Heaven, after all, she did “Call me when she got there”