I have spent thousands of hours in exhibit halls in past years, and although there is not much to be said about aching feet, I will treasure forever having met so many amazing and interesting people. One encounter that invariably comes to my mind is a woman I met at the New Life Expo in New York City.
She looked to be in her mid-sixties at the time. She was a petite and meticulously dressed woman with dark hair and a lovely face. She was standing at our booth looking around when she noticed, among the various materials available, a magazine that we publish entitled, There Is Life After Death. She looked up at me, smiled and said; “I know that there is life after death. Do you want to know how I know?”
“Sure I do, I’d love to know,” I said.
“Well” she went on, “I only had one child, a son, who died in a car accident about five years ago. He was the joy of my existence, and I thought that I would go crazy with grief. One night, when I was especially depressed, I went to visit a friend who was very spiritual and intuitive. She told me about her own near death experience.”
“Really?” I said, “What happened?”
The woman continued, “She was having a routine surgery and died on the operating table. She found herself hovering above her body and then she went on into a tunnel of light to the next world. She said it was exquisitely beautiful, but she was somewhat troubled by the fact that she didn’t get to say goodbye to her loved ones. An angelic being took her over to a rainbow and told her to enter. When she entered the rainbow, she could here all of the words and prayers that we being said for her and to her, from her loved ones on Earth. She could also feel the love that motivated each message. It was not long after that she woke up in the hospital and the doctor confirmed to her that she had actually died for a time.”
The woman paused for a moment and continued, “My friend told me to go home that night, get down on my knees and pray with all my heart that my son might hear my message to him, and then imagine that he was standing in the rainbow, hearing every word.”
“So did you do that?” I asked.
“You bet I did!” She said. “I couldn’t wait. I went home and got down on my knees. I begged God and the universe to allow my son to hear my message. Then I told my son, ‘Son, I love you so much, and I am so proud of you. You were always the light of my life. I’m sorry if I didn’t tell you often enough how much you mean to me! And Son, I miss you with all of my heart. I feel bad that I never got to tell you goodbye. So I want to tell you now, goodbye my Son, and I love you forever, and I can’t wait until we are together again.”
“Then,” she said, as she drew closer to me, “You’ll never believe what happened. I went to bed and had the most amazing dream. In my dream, I was standing on a street corner, and my son drove up to the curb in his car. He rolled down the window on the curbside and leaned over and said, ‘Ma, come close, I want to tell you something.’ So I put my head in the window, and I took his hand and said, ‘I’m here Son, what do you want to tell me?’ He said, ‘Ma, I love you too, with all my heart. And I’m proud of you Ma; you were always there for me. And I miss you too, but you shouldn’t worry about me, cause I’m fine, they’re taking good care of me here Ma, and I’m real happy. We’ll be together before you know it. And Ma, I’m sorry I never got to say goodbye to you too. I gotta go now; I love you!’ Then he kissed my hand, rolled up the window and drove away.” Then she paused again, looked me right in the eyes and said with a sparkle, “And that’s how I know, there IS life after death.”
I thanked her profusely as I wiped my tears away.
I can’t tell you how many grieving people I have shared her story with, nor how many times I myself have talked to my own graduated loved ones, all the while imagining them standing in the rainbow, hearing every word.
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