We Love you Pop!

Today at 11:35, Aaron's father, Larry Creasy, left this Earth and headed for heaven. He fought the cancer battle that he was given fiercely, but in the end, God could wait no longer for him. He was a wonderful Christian, and lived his life as a strong man of God. Aaron inherited so many traits from him, most of which I am thankful for ;)

Saturday morning, while in the middle of having Hurricane Ike directly over our city, we got the call that Larry had "collapsed" and was unconcious, and on life support. We were told that he would not make it through the night, but he would be left on life support long enough for Aaron to get to him. We packed in about 7 minutes, threw a bunch of stuff in our car, and headed towards Baton Rouge. The drive was ROUGH. We drove through ALOT of destruction, ALOT of wind, ALOT of rain, and dealth with ALOT of mishap (we were side swiped, causing quite a bit of damage to our car when we FINALLY found the first open gas station in 250 miles). But, we made it last night. There were alot of things that we each wanted to tell Larry before he left this life. Luckily, we were both able to. Last night, he was hooked up to ALOT of machines, and looked pretty rough. He looked peaceful. When you talked to him, he would make small movements to let us know that he knew we were there. We decided to leave him on life support through the night and meet up this morning.

Upon arriving this morning, we were told of quite a bit of information, but basically, his body had lost the battle with cancer. I'll spare you the details. But, around 9 am, a room filled with family and friends all loved on him, told him how much he meant, and then we sang hymns and prayed with him. He loved hearing the hymns, and even had a few tears in his eyes. He was very sedated, but knew we were all there. At 9:30, the doctors came in and removed all of his life support. For the next two hours, we sang more, talked more, loved on him more (which is kind of funny because he is NOT a touchy kind of guy, so we took advantage of being able to rub his head, hands, legs, and arms without him fussing at us). I have never been in the presence of anyone dying, and that part was VERY difficult. It was odd, and I gained a totally new admiration for doctors and nurses. His death was beautiful, he peacefully breathed slower and slower. He never fought, never seemed uncomfortable. He was in thre presence of friends for many years, his sons, step daughters, daughters in law, and his brothers and sisters, and mom. It was obvious that he was well loved. At one point, he seemed to come out of the sedation for about 3 minutes and seemed to look all around at everyone there. Then, his preacher said the 23rd Psalm, and asked the Lord to help him let go. He stopped breathing a few minutes later.

Please pray for our family over the next few days. The visitation will tentatively be Tuesday night, with the funeral being Wednesday morning. Plans have not been finalized with the funeral home yet, but we will finish that tomorrow.

Sullivan does not understand, and Sophie has no concept. I was blessed to have my dear friend Jamie keep my kids today and spare them the excitement of the day. She will never know how much it has meant to me. It it times like these that you realize just how many friends you have. My mom's group has pulled together, and are taking shifts letting my dogs out for me. I deeply appreciate everything anyone is doing. Please pray for us to make it home safely when we return, and for us to help Stephanie with any loose ends left behind. I am sure the "surreal"ness will soon fade, and we will all need the "peace that passes all understanding".

We love you deeply Larry. Your legacy will definitely live on. Aaron seems to be cut out of your direct mold. He is a hard working, dedicated, goal oriented, and (sadly) hard headed as you were. He is an excellent father, and had to have learned it from the best! We will miss you deeply. While we do not understand this all happening so fast, in a few ways we are jealous that you get to be in Heaven. Save us a seat please!