My Father's Story-Part 1
Linda Dion
June 7, 2020
I wanted to share with you our journey alongside my father because it is truly a story about God's goodness, graciousness and "wonders of His faithful love" (Psalm 31:21). It reveals how God speaks to His people when they need discernment and comfort in the midst of their difficulties and perplexities, thereby giving direction and hope. I include it in this section of our website because the story is filled with dreams and prophetic words. I hope that you will be blessed and encouraged by it since so many of you prayed for my father during his last days here on earth.
The specifics of this particular leg of our journey began while we were living in Brantford Ontario, when I woke up one morning from a very interesting dream. It was the end of November, 2017.
In this dream, Marcel and I were packing, but so were my parents, and we were doing it in the same house. Some boxes were closed and taped, others were open because we still needed access to the things inside as though the move would be done in two separate steps. Once we had finished our packing, we all got in a car and drove off together with my father at the wheel, but his driving was a little erratic. We seemed to be on the Queensway.
I've had many packing dreams over the years and sure enough, Marcel and I have moved many times. In His goodness, the Lord has always been kind enough to prepare us for what was ahead, especially before our move to New Brunswick, our move to Brantford and our subsequent move back to Ottawa. Packing dreams can point to a spiritual change or they can be literal; in our case the dreams have for the most part been literal.
​
In this particular dream, the Lord was pointing to great changes happening simultaneously in our lives and in my parents' lives. It also seemed to indicate a move that would be accomplished in more than one step. As mentioned in other posts and videos, a car always represents the "vehicle" the Lord uses to get us from one point to another. In this case, since my father was at the wheel and we were passengers, the sense was that we would be "accompanying" my parents along the journey but that this would impact our own lives since the Lord would also be "moving us along".
​
At the time, Marcel and I were in fact looking for a new home because the house the Bishop had provided for us was to be sold. We weren't sure where we were going, but the dream seemed to be pointing in the direction of Ottawa, since the car we were in was somewhere on the Queensway.
​
One month later, we received a Christmas card from my mother, which included a note asking if we would be interested in living with them for a while, to help them out until they could move into an apartment in the Résidence St. Louis in Orléans. This request came totally out of the blue for us! We would live with them until they could get settled into their apartment and we could find ourselves a home that would suit our particular needs. We ended up moving back to Ottawa at the end of May 2018. As the dream had indicated, all of us were moving into an initial situation in order to transition into a second one.
Once we had moved into my parents' home, it became quite apparent to us that my father was rapidly losing ground. He had been diagnosed with Parkinson's a few years earlier and the disease was gaining on him. All the medications he was taking to control the Parkinson's as well as the dementia were taking their toll on his body, his mind and his mood. The part in the dream with my father's erratic driving was pointing to this reality. As the months went by, those of us caring for my father found it increasingly difficult to do so and the anxiety and concern for him was building up. He would fall pretty regularly and Marcel and I are convinced that it was the ministry of angels which protected him from breaking any bones, slamming his head into furniture or falling down the stairs. It was becoming very clear that my parents would not be able to move into an apartment together and that my father would probably need to move into the "long-term" care wing of the building.
​
At the end of September, 2018, when we had been with my parents about 4 months, the Lord gave me another dream, showing us His intention. It was another packing dream:
In the dream, my parents had packed up all their belongings in the house, except for the items that they would still need until the movers came, which would be in a matter of 3-4 weeks. I could only see the family room, but it was completely packed and the walls were bare. I called Marcel up from the basement (where his office is) and I said, "Marcel, come and see this. My parents are all packed!"
In the Old Testament, the Lord often uses the term "weeks" to describe a length of time in the dreams and visions He sends to His prophet Daniel. I don't really understand why He does so, since it seems to me to complicate the matter! In any case, the word "weeks" is used to indicate "years" as in the vision recounted in Daniel 9: 24-27, where "70 weeks" are decreed for the people to make atonement, after which they would be able to return to their home land. We know that these 70 weeks are actually 70 years, because Jeremiah had prophesied that after 70 years, the Jews would be able to return to Israel.
​
In my dream, the movers were to come in 3 to 4 weeks. Marcel and I both felt that it couldn't possibly be "years" since my father was visibly failing and none of us could hold out much longer. As we pondered this dream and entrusted its interpretation to the Holy Spirit, we thought that it might perhaps mean 3 to 4 months. Sure enough, my mother finally put in an emergency request and my dad was welcomed at the Montford Long Term Care Residence the first week of January 2019, a little over 3 months after my dream! A new season was to begin in my father's journey as well as our own. The "family room" in the dream - which was in fact their actual family room - would no longer be the same. My father had literally "moved on" and my mother was called to "move on" in a more subjective way. As for Marcel and I, the dream didn't indicate any kind of move, which simply means that God has not yet revealed the next step that we are to take in our own journey forward.