Something wasn't quite right.......

The symptoms were subtle, vague.  Tightness in the chest, fatigue, inability to focus......and then, there was the burning.  A burning of the skin that he would compare to a severe sunburn, or the way your skin feels when you have a high fever, tender, sore.  Yet there was never any fever, no cough, no explainable symptoms.  And then there were the near blackouts.  On at least two separate occasions he nearly blacked out behind the pulpit.  He explained it to me as a complete loss of focus, lightheadedness, tunnel vision.  I distinctly remember the first time it occurred.  It was a Sunday morning and midway thru his sermon he stopped and turned his back to the congregation.  The next thing I recall are the ministers and others on the platform gathering around him to pray for him.  I rushed the stage, confused, concerned. That was the beginning, the beginning of a seven year battle that I did everything in my power to conceal.

It was stress, it HAD to be stress, what else could it be?  Maybe it was high blood pressure which he had inherited.  Was he having mini strokes??  We asked ourselves all of these questions and made self diagnosis.  He had good days, he had bad days.  He learned quickly when to stop, when to rest, yet the symptoms became more and more frequent and greater in intensity.  Around this time Reverend and Mrs. Stacy Wiley came to assist us.  Little did they know the key role they would play over the next few years.

Tim was involved in many aspects of ministry aside from Pastoring our beloved congregation.  At the time of his death he had served for many years as the Secretary for the Apostolic Man Ministry International, as well as being the Editor of their magazine.  Due to his position he had been asked to represent the Ministry at the Arizona District Men's Conference in early to mid 2003.  He had in fact been asked to preach a day service.  He called me late in the evening after the first service.

I was at home in Avondale with our children, Tim was in a hotel in Mesa, a town approximately 30 minutes away.  He explained to me that he was extremely ill and had in fact left the service early.  He had also informed our District Superintendent that he would be unable to preach the next morning.  I could tell that he was very very sick and I was deeply concerned, I encouraged him to go right to bed and get some rest.  I suggested we wait until Monday, as the next day was Saturday to contact his Physician and schedule an appointment.  Disturbed, I hung up the phone said a prayer for him and tried to get some sleep.

I was awakened at approximately 2:00 or 3:00 a.m. by the sound of someone rustling around in our bedroom.  As my eyes adjusted in the darkness, I saw that it was Tim, pale and disheveled.  I sat up in bed and asked him what in the world he was doing home.  He proceeded to explain that he was so ill and wanted to be in his own bed.......to my horror, he went on to tell me that he had no recollection of the drive home!

We awakened the next morning to Tim complaining of shortness of breath and tightness in his chest.  I immediately insisted he make a call to his Doctor.  Doctor Thomas Thacker put us in touch with a colleague of his who happened to be on call that day, and so, we prepared to leave.  I normally would not have accompanied Tim to his Doctor appointments, but on that day, I felt an urgency to go with him.