In 1989 I had graduated nursing school and was working as a nurse in a hospital. I had a patient that was in isolation with pneumonia. Somehow I contracted the same type of pneumonia, even though I used all necessary precautions. I was sick overnight. I woke up with severe chills and a fever of 102. I still lived in the nursing dorm, so I woke up another nurse who took me to the hospital across the street. The doctors in the ER admitted me immediately.

By the next day I was running fevers of 104. The highest my fever got was 105.2. I was very sick. I couldn't breathe out of my nose or mouth. The infection control doctor said I had Klebsiella pneumonia, which has a high mortality rate. I was in the hospital for about 2 months. One day I was running fevers of around 104-105, couldn't breathe, and just wanted to be out of the sickness. I wanted to get better. I'm an only child, and my mother was told by the doctors that I wasn't improving, even though I was being given massive doses of antibiotics. They even told my mother I would probably die, because I was septic by then. She was screaming, "But she's only 23!!"

I don't remember the specific day, but after being sick for 2 months I remember saying to myself, I just can't take this anymore. I remember hearing the doctors and nurses around my bed in ICU saying, "She's not gonna make it."

I closed my eyes and then I was in another realm. No tunnel of light or anything. I was just there. At first I was slightly confused. Where am I? I was on a path and I could see hills, green grass, a flowing brook, and a low stone wall. I saw animals of all kinds and lots of flowers. The colors were very vivid, and there are no colors on earth like them. I could hear soft music coming from somewhere, but I couldn't tell where it was coming from. I saw bearded irises on the path I was on, and I leaned over to smell them. They smelled just like lemonade!!

All of a sudden a large golden coach appeared. There were people in it, and the door opened. I got in without any question. There were no drivers on the coach. In all the NDEs I've read, I've never heard of anyone else mentioning a coach of any kind. Well, we were taken to a mansion, that's the only way I can describe it, and into a very large room with people of all ages, races, etc. The room was round and there were gold candles on the walls. The walls were a robins egg blue with gold trim. Two huge doors were on one side of the room. There were many, many people in this room.

All of a sudden I felt a strong presence behind me. I turned around and there was my great-grandmother and my grandmother!! I grew up in the same house with them, so I knew who they were, but they looked like they were about 17-21 years old. My GG died in 1978 at the age of 100, and my grandmother, whom I was extremely close to, had passed away 3 years before in 1985. There was no way I could have recognised my GG, since I had no picture of her when she was 17 in 1895. But I knew them both. They wouldn't let me touch them, but they said I wasn't ready and would see them again someday.

About that time the two huge doors opened. Beings appeared that somehow I knew were angels. They wore a very bright white and were very tall. About 10 feet or more. I was not frightened by their presence. They began to take groups of people through these doors. I wanted to go, but they said it wasn't my time. I could see a very bright light, and somehow I knew it was God. All of a sudden everything I ever questioned made sense. I knew instantly we are one with everything. Another thing. Everyone spoke, but it was almost like telepathy. I turned around to see my GG and grandmother, saying I wanted to stay. They said again no, you're not ready.

And the next thing I know I was opening my eyes back in ICU. Just like that. I closed my eyes again wanting so much to go back, but I couldn't. One of the nurses turned around and gasped. She said I was pronounced dead about 20 minutes ago. The doctors could never understand how I "recovered" in their words. I knew then I had died and I got a small glimpse of heaven.

It has taken me over 30 years for me to ever tell anyone what I experienced. The first person I told was my husband, and that was after we had been married for years. I was not oxygen deprived, I was not on any narcotics, and I did not dream this!! I finally have opened up and told my NDE to others.

I use this as an example of what I experienced. Did you wake up this morning and eat breakfast, shower, maybe drove to work? Did you really do those things or did you dream it? You really did. That's what my NDE was. It was VERY REAL, very vivid and beyond wonderful!! And to this day, when I lean over to smell an iris, I still smell the scent of lemonade.