The Morgue

So, It was 1976. I had been with a group of friends from church and we had been doing a musical Jam all morning with the band.

 It was a very hot summer day and we had just finished our jam.

I was packing up to get ready to head for home. The church was about 3 miles from my house, I stood out on the street in front of the church next to my car saying my good bye's to everyone when another friend pulled up in a van. I didn't know him well, but I'd seen him at church before. He was a tall dark haired guy that was always hanging around and helping people. He got out and came over near where we were all standing and said that a young married couple from another church in town had just lost their child to a drowning accident in South St. Petersburg, in their back yard pool.

He was crying and had asked for prayer for the family.

The father of this young child was a very close friend of his and he was just shocked that this had happened. 

I was so crushed to hear this news. I thought of all the sweet friends I had and how I loved their children! I could relate to what this guy was feeling. I was moved in my Spirit. Even though I didn't know the young couple, I could not help but feel their pain. I asked how old the baby was and my friend said about 2 1/2 years old. A little boy. Pain just gripped me in a way that actually surprised me. I felt so bad for these two young parents, and for this broken man standing in front of us. I had little boys. I was just speechless.

After we all prayed for comfort for this man and his friends, we all exchanged phone numbers with the man to call and pray with him and to stay in touch about the funeral that would be upcoming.  So we all got back in our cars. I said my goodbyes and headed home. The entire drive home I just keep thinking about the young family. What could I do to help ease their pain. I thought to myself, I'll pray for them all day. Maybe I can make them a meal or two? I'll seek GOD for answers for them, so they don't blame themselves and live in torture the rest of their lives.

 

I got home and shared the news with my husband and kids. We all prayed for the young couple. I looked at my beautiful young sons praying earnestly for this baby boy and this situation and my heart just broke. They were so precious.

After dinner that night I got the Bible out and read for about an hour. I read that GOD could raise from the dead, I had read this many times before but today those words came alive for me.

HE is the same GOD today that HE was then so what would the difference be if I believed HIM today for a miracle as they did back then? It was obvious to me that this was my answer!

 

I called my friend who had come in the van to the church and asked, where did they take the boy after he died? He mentioned that he had heard the coroner had taken him to Bayfront Medical Center in downtown St. Petersburg. I asked what the child's name was. He revealed it to me. (I won't mention it here to protect this young couple). 

I shared with him that I was going to the Hospital morgue to raise the child from the dead! I was feeling led to go. My friend was stunned, he asked me how I was going to do this? I said I believe in miracles and I'm asking GOD for one now! I'm going to do it just like they did back in biblical days.

We prayed together again.

I hung up the phone.

I got in my car in pure faith and said to my husband, I'm going to follow the instruction in the Bible to a "T" and call upon the name of the LORD to save this baby boy and bring him back from the dead. Just as had been done in the Bible!

That really shocked him, but he said he believed that faith in action could do just about anything!  I agreed.

My husband prayed for me and said he would stay home with the children. So nothing would hinder me.

Off I went, alone, to Bayfont Medical Center. Full of Faith!

Towards the Morgue.

 

When I got there, I saw this massive large Hospital building, It looked bigger than it ever did before! I parked my car in the street parking. I went into the building with amazing faith, I had prayed all the way there.  I felt as if I were being guided. I did not feel like I was alone! I headed straight down stairs looking for the morgue.

I couldn't find it. I searched the entire floor for a sign leading to it. Then all of a sudden I saw a tall, thin older man, a janitor, moping the floor at the end of a long hall, he was humming some tune, I walked up to him and asked him where I might find the morgue.

He smiled at me and then looking straight into my eyes,

 his eyes got real big and he said to me "Why is a pretty young girl like you looking for the morgue"? I explained my sad story to him briefly and said I felt as if the LORD would guide and instruct me once I found the little boy. He looked at me in utter amazement and replied again with a big smile on his face, "well now, who am I to get in the way of the LORDS plans"?

He said, you know I could get in a lot of trouble for this?

But I believe you're story, I do think the LORD has sent you.

With that he said "Follow me".

And so I did.

We went down in the elevator to another floor. Then as we were headed down the long shiny clean hall he turned and looked at me and said "Have you ever seen a dead body before"? I said "no".

He asked me if I had ever been in a morgue before? I said "no".

He said you are one brave little girl to come here all alone. I replied, I wasn't alone at all and I simply had no fear, I trust the LORD completely. HE is with me, of that I am sure or I would not be doing this!

 I am a bit concerned as to what a dead sweet baby boy will look like however I mentioned.

He said, don't worry honey, he will just look as if he is sleeping, that's all.

Finally, after a long walk we came to the door. A huge stainless steel door with a brass sign, "M O R G U E".

 

The older man tuned to look at me and asked me again, "are you sure you want to go in there"? I said I was never more sure of anything in my life.

Do you want me to go in with you, he asked? I said, no, Thank you, I'll be fine. He said what are you going to do when you find the little boy? I said I'm going to pray and breath life back into him like they did in the bible! GOD will do the rest!

With that he nodded at me as if to say O.K., and told me not to stay to long as it was very cold in there. I said, O.K. I won't. Then he took a key from the ring of keys on his chain hanging by his pocket and he unlocked the door. He then opened the huge door for me and in I went. He looked at me again and said, "you sure  bout this honey"? I just smiled back at him he seemed to understand my smile, he then said, I'll just be out here in the hall then, waiting on you. I replied, O.K., and walked inside. The doors closed behind me. They made a loud bang as they closed. It was very cold.

Here I was, alone in the morgue. It was huge, It was all stainless steel and very clean. It had an odd smell, but not a bad one. Just real different, like you would expect death to smell like, I guess.

I looked around the huge room. It was well lit. There were steel beds protruding like shelves from the walls in the room. There were many bodies all draped in white linens. Maybe about 7 bodies. I walked from one side of the room to the next. But they were all adult bodies. There were no little bodies wrapped in the morgue. No infant sized bodies anywhere. I was so upset. I stood in the center of the room turning each way over and over again. I checked each bed. No little boy! 

I cried out loud to the LORD and said,

"Here I am LORD, where is he"?

I stood in the middle of the morgue taking in all the sterile sights.

I waited for  an answer. I felt I heard GOD say to me,

"Teri, he is not here".

Then silence!

I just stood there.

Then I asked GOD again, where is he?

I felt the LORD tell me,

"he has already been taken to the funeral home Teri".

I ran out of the morgue, and I saw the janitor at the end of the hall. He stopped what he was doing and with wide eyes asked me, "what happened"? I said the boy isn't there!

He's already been taken to the funeral home.

The Janitor said well, I can't help you with that. So I thanked the janitor and I asked him where could I find out which funeral home  they had taken him too? He replied, they would know that at the upstairs desk for the morgue. I asked him where that would be, which floor?  He asked me not to mention that I had gone inside the morgue. I promised him I would not say a word about it, he then told me how to get to the desk upstairs.

I ran up the stairs from the Morgue and found the desk. I inquired at the desk about the arrangements for the little boy. The older lady at the desk said his body was taken that morning to a Funeral home in Tampa, Florida.

I asked which one? She finally told me, but, only after a long conversation I had had with her to convince her to please help me!

 

I drove towards home. I had no idea where the funeral home was in Tampa. I didn't know that city at all at the time. I knew I would get lost if I drove their alone. I had never been to Tampa alone before.

Doubts were creeping in.

If the child was taken there in the early morning, chances were the autopsy or preparation for the funeral would already have been preformed, I thought. I just cried out to GOD, why had I been so late? Why hadn't I gone to the morgue yesterday, or earlier in this morning? I started crying.

I was so upset. I so wanted to raise that child from the dead for that young family. My heart just broke.

 

I drove home and shared my whole experience with the my family.

I called the friend that had told me about the child's death and explained that I was unsuccessful in my attempts to raise the boy from the dead because he wasn't there!

 He replied to me, through his tears and crying, you were not unsuccessful. You were very successful actually. He said, I could not have done what you just did. I don't think anyone of us could have. We were all praying for you and your amazing faith.

The LORD wanted that boy home for whatever reason, otherwise I believe you would have raised that child today!

This is why he wasn't there Teri. Had he been there, you would have had your miracle!

 

To this day I look back on that experience and wonder if that sweet boy would have been there would I have raised his body through faith from the dead. I do truly believe it would have happened.

I also believe that janitor was more than just a janitor, he was part of the divine appointment to allow me to exercise my faith that day.

I will always be blessed from this sad experience and someday I look forward to meeting that little boy face to face.