In Loving Memory of my father Albert T.
Wilson, 1923-2004
This is a follow up from the November 7, 2004 daylog about my father.
Many of you requested that I follow up with any information on his condition.
At 9:50pm central time, November 12, 2004, my father took his last breath.
My mother never left his side while he was in the hospital and was there with
him until the end. He died in his sleep while he was in the ICU ward, at
Missouri Southern Healthcare Hospital in Dexter, Missouri.
He died at the age of 81 and lived a full long life. Some of the
memorable events in his life include the following:
- He fought with the United State Air Force in World War II and was also an
airplane mechanic. This led to one of the first major events in his
life. While waiting to fly to West Germany, a sergeant woke him up in
the middle of the night to work on a transport plane that was having engine
trouble. They told him he would catch up with his unit a couple days
later. However, he was reassigned to a different unit. The
sergeant who had pulled him out didn't know this. Several months later
this sergeant saw him working on a plane and had a look of astonishment on his
face. He told Dad, "What are you doing here, man?" and Dad said "Working
on a plane, why?". The sergeant informed him that his entire unit that
he was first assigned to died when the plane crashed in the ocean.
- On April 3, 1948 he married the love of his life, my Mom. They were
married over 56 years and accomplished many great things in life together.
- They had their son on March 31, 1949. This is where the story gets
complicated. Their son is my biological father, who was not capable of
raising a child so they adopted me in 1970. I have never considered them
to be anything but my parents. They raised me as their own, never hiding
the fact that I was adopted and were the best parents anybody could have asked
for.
- They were both saved together on July 2, 1960, in a little country church
in rural Missouri. Over the years, Dad held many different positions in
the church. Through the years, my father brought many people into the
church and watched them get saved. He has touched many lives, both in
the church and in the secular world.
- In 1976, they adopted yet another child my biological father had by
another wife and raised her as they have raised me, like she was their own.
My father was the type of man that would do anything he could to help
somebody. This includes giving them the shirt off of his back if that is
what they needed. He worked for everything he owned, never accepting
charity from anyone. His philosophy was that a man should be able to work
and pay his own way and support his family.
His funeral will be held Tuesday, November 16, 2004, at 11:00am. It
will be a full military style funeral with a 21 gun salute and a trumpeter
playing taps. The United States flag will be presented to my mother, which
she has already decided to give to my sister's youngest son, who spent lots of
time with Dad and was very close to him.
We will all miss him very much, but we are glad he is not in the extreme pain
any longer. My Dad has gone to heaven.
My wife, Harmony and I would like to personally thank all of you for you kind words and prayers over the last
couple of weeks. It really helped keep our spirits up during this trying
time. This has proven to me that E2 is more like a family than just a bunch of random people thrown together.