Although this near-death experience occurred 65 years ago (1943), I will never get it out of my mind. I had been rushed to the emergency ward of a local hospital because of an unbearable pain I was experiencing. It was diagnosed as an inguinal hernia, and my parents were told that immediate surgery was necessary.

In March of 1994, I was sharing a flat in Folkestone, England with a guy, who at the time I thought was my friend. He had wormed his way into staying in the spare room of my flat, but I little realized that he wanted the whole flat for himself. He would, two months later lock me out of my own home on my 25th birthday after a possible murder attempt on me.

I remember being in a beautiful garden with huge flowers and big colorful butterflies. Someone in all white escorted me to this place, and there were other children there. I remember running and playing with them and nobody seemed to be different because the love was so strong. What captured my attention is someone calling my name. The more I heard it, the stronger it became familiar to me. It was my mother’s voice and I was always taught to obey my parents. That is exactly what I did. The person who was watching me walked across the bridge and said goodbye to me. I was too young to understand what had happened and didn’t think much about it until years later.

Three nights after an operation, I had a heart attack. There were two nurses in the room at the time. Suddenly my father, who had passed over 30 years previously, was standing at the left of my bed down near my feet. I remember saying, "Oh, hi dad," as if it was perfectly normal to see him! I must have been talking too much, although I cannot remember doing this, because he said to me in a very impatient voice, "Well come on, are you coming or not, you have to make up your mind.” I replied, "ewe, I’d better not," and before I could say anything else he was gone without another word. Then I was looking at 12 nurses/doctors surrounding me. One doctor was yelling my name into my left ear.