I was a nurse for 35 years, working night shift as a house supervisor. I loved my job. I ran to code blues, helped with organ donation and helped patients die with dignity. I retired in April 2014 so I could spend more time with my husband. In 2016, I was noticing some shortness of breath when going upstairs or when cutting the grass. I hesitated telling my nurse practioner about this, but I did. She sent me for a treadmill test, which did not show much except high blood pressure. I was also asked to see a cardiologist, which I did and the other tests were done. Finally the catscan with dye showed a blockage. I went to the catheter lab. The doctor could not even get the line in my left main artery without my blood pressure dropping. He did not finish the catheter procedure and quickly told my husband and daughter that it was bad and that I needed a double bypass. I was transferred to the hospital immediately. My daughter, who is was also a nurse, understood all of this.
I had double bypass surgery on July 8, 2016. On the morning of the surgery, I told myself that I had lived a good and honest life and I placed myself in God’s hands. I was nervous and scared as they wheeled me into a large room with multiple blue sterile supplies. The nurses looked at me and said, ‘Good morning, Diane.’ I couldn’t believe they knew my name, but it did help me relax. The anesthesiologist was kind and soft spoken.
Sometime during the surgery, I had a wonderful experience. I am supposing it was during the time they put me on the heart/lung machine. It could have been seconds or minutes that I was clinically dead, but I do not know for sure. I just know that I drifted slowly out of my body to a very cloudy, misty place. I rose slowly, as if I was on an escalator. I did not see myself, nor did I see or worry about those on earth. As I slowly rose, I saw my grandparents. The men were on the left and the women were on the right. I recognized them right away, although I only saw one grandfather in my earthly life. My grandfather H was wearing a black suit and white shirt that was loose around the neck with no tie. He was holding his black hat, that I have seen pictures of. My grandmother H was wearing a very lacy, layered dress. Her hair was pulled back and pinned in two places away from her face. My other grandparents had on less dressy clothing because they were farmers.
They all smiled at me lovingly, kindly and I felt peace and safety. They did not say one word or beckon me to come closer. I say they were on the left and right because they were on the beginning of a path that went on back, and was lined with other people. I was not privileged to see their faces, but I felt they were my relations and people that I had known. As the path turned and went back further, I could see a beautiful sunset or sunrise with colors of white, yellow, and gold. I could see the outline of people standing on their tiptoes who were trying to see me. They were leaning to the left and the right, trying to get a peek at who had come to visit them. I was never afraid, just amazed. My grandparents were not old or crippled. They were in their thirties. They were happy and at peace. I looked into their eyes and knew they were happy.
I slowly faded away and must have gone back into my body. The next thing I knew, I was coming around the next day after surgery. I did not tell my daughter and husband about this experience until the second day, but I knew something very special had happened to me. It was so real and was not a dream. I could describe it in detail for weeks afterwards.
After I got home and after months of recovery, I kept feeling that there was something that I was supposed to do and it kept bothering me. It had to do with my grandmother H. It was a message that I was to give to family. Let me try to explain this. Grandmother H had three children. She played favorites with two of the daughters. The one daughter never forgave her for this. As she grew up and married, she passed on this dislike of her mother to her grandchildren. I know this for a fact, because my cousin would openly show and talk about her dislike of grandmother H.
Two months after my surgery my cousins, the estranged grandchildren, wanted to have a reunion. This was unusual for all of them to come to Indiana at one time. This did happen and I knew in my heart that I was to convey a message to my cousin who was so vocal about my grandmother. At the reunion, I took her aside and told her that I needed to tell her something, so we spoke in private. I told her about my surgery and my experience. I told her that she needed to forgive and give up her anger towards our grandmother H because she is in heaven and she has reconciled with her daughter. They are happy. Grandmother H must have done some good things on earth to deserve going to heaven, which is where I believe I was. My cousin began to cry. She said, ‘You are not going to believe this but my husband and I talked about all of this on our way from Virginia. We talked about the dislike and feelings that I had toward grandmother H.’ I could feel her relief and letting go of anger that she had. She said, ‘Thank you for telling me this’.
I was also now at peace and felt I had been a vessel for a message to be delivered. I now understood my feelings.
I had been bothered by the fact of how I had been given the message, but now after reading ‘Evidence of the Afterlife by Jeffrey Long and Paul Perry, I now know it was mental telepathy. This answers my question that I had been pondering. My grandparents did not have to say a word, I just knew what they were thinking.