It was a pleasant day and the drive-in had just opened. I went out to clean off my windshield, which was the only time I was outside that day. I went inside and finished cooking a meal. I felt so tired, that I needed to take a shower to try to wake up. When I came out of the shower, I felt even worse. So I laid down with my wet towel over my body. I wanted to rest for a few moments. My neighbor walked in my trailer and exclaimed, ‘My God what happened to you!’ and I said, ‘Nothing, Why?’ She replied, ‘Look at you!’ I tried to look but my head felt a terrible resistance. There were blisters as big as footballs on top of each of my thighs and calves. My feet looked like volleyballs, they were so swollen. I had one blister that ran from my face to the edge of my shoulders. She ran to get her husband who had been a lifeguard in Florida. He grabbed me up and put me in the back of my car. He drove me to the emergency room and was yelling for help as soon as we got to the door. Nobody had ever seen anything like this. I wasn’t in any pain and I still flirted with a really cute orderly who wheeled my gurney up to the isolation room. When they called my parents, they told them that the closest diagnosis they could come to was some kind of burn. But, it was like no burn they had ever seen. I was ‘burned’ over 98% of my body with 2nd and 3rd degree burns. The medical staff to my parents that they should take the time they had to say goodbye to me.
The first time my sister-in-law came to see me, she passed out and had to be carried out of the room. I spent the next three months dying off and on. Each time I died, it was even better than before. Every time I got a little further. I had read a lot of religious works and all my life I have always believed there was something bigger than us. It wasn’t until that first episode that I got the chance to see for myself just how real Heaven and Hell really are.
The first time I died I was scared and didn’t know what was happening. I had not been far away from home, so I was lost. I thought, ‘What on earth are those people doing?’ as I watched them racing around my shell of a body with the shock paddles trying to get my heart started again. I remember laughing and thought, ‘Oh, no. I’m out of here.’ Then I was where someone was showing a very negative side of where people could go and stay. I just knew that I had to be the wrong place and I said, ‘Please not me. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry for anything I have ever done.’ All of a sudden, I was floating down this mother of pearl path. I was moving and the path was so much more beautiful because it had colors in it that I don’t think I could ever begin to describe. I moved to a path where people were walking. Some of these people I knew from before came to me and asked me, ‘Do you want to go see the buildings?’ Of course I said, ‘Yes.’
At that time, I got yanked back into my body. It felt like someone had turned on a giant vacuum and took away everything from me. All I could think about was getting back to that world. I wouldn’t have to wait too long because soon after that, I died again. This time, I did get into the buildings. I got to see into the library where shelves of books glisten. I saw buildings that sparkled like they were brand new, even though they were ancient. I was so sure that I would be able to stay that time, but they brought me back to my body again. I was really beginning to hate the people that were so misguided to keep bringing me back.
The third time, some people who went with me to the library took me to a room called a viewing room. It is where they can check on people to make sure events are going as they are supposed to be. They told me to look in the viewer. I saw my son, Brian. Then they told me that I needed to go back to take care of my son Adam. I told them I didn’t have a son named Adam. They told me that soon I would. Three years later, even though I was on the strongest birth control pills available, I had a son; I named him Adam.