PERSONAL
STORIES
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End-of-Life Experiences
The D-Word is keen to hear from you
Do you have any extraordinary experiences you would like to share? Or dreams which have comforted you after someone has died? It is not unusual to have 'strange' things happen around the time of death. Your willingness to talk about these experiences can help others to understand they are not mad!
To send in your story, please contact us
Lynn's father had a powerful vision just before he died:
I
was so glad to be there for my Dad at the end of his life. I felt prepared for it
because I’d read quite a bit about the dying process. I was able to reassure
him when he called out.
He said he saw his own father waiting with open arms to
take him home. He had such excitement in his voice, and I was surprised because he hadn’t spoken the day before. I asked him if he mother was there too, but he said ‘No’.
I
was able to tell him we were very happy for him to go with his father, and we
weren’t holding on to him from our side.
It
was a particularly wonderful time for my daughter, who was at his side,
watching all this unfold. It’s made her much more comfortable with death. The
night he died, she was woken up around 3:37 am by a man’s voice saying ‘He’s
gone.’ It didn’t scare her, and when we checked with the staff in the morning, they told us he had died around that time.
I
should add, the evening before he died, I asked my Reiki group to send distant
healing to him. I was with him at the time they did this. An incredible sense
of peace and love come into his room, and a wonderful calmness settled over us.
This is Kimberly's experience:
I had had a difficult
relationship with my mother for much of my life, but when she became very ill
from cancer, she became much softer. It was as though she became more innocent
and child-like. The result was that I developed a strong, loving connection
with her in her last six months of life.
One of the things I found difficult was not being able to 'read' how close she
was to dying. Six months before she died she was seeing dead relatives and
staircases that didn't exist. Coupled with this was the inability of anyone
else in my family to acknowledge that she was possibly approaching death.
The last challenges came immediately after she died. My mother still looked
very vibrant and I wondered if maybe she hadn't left her body. My father had planned to have her cremated immediately, but a number of people
I respect advised us not to do this for at least three days after her death.
I convinced my
father to keep her body at home for a few days and we said prayers and held a
vigil on the first night. After
two days her body noticeably changed and became more ashen. It was an incredibly important time for me, and having her at home like this helped us to let go.
Is there such a thing as an easy death?
Cancer nurse Trea McNally believes so - if we learn to manage the process properly. She talks to Diane Taylor.
Guardian Life and Style, Tuesday, 9th June, 2009
Personal story
Personal story
Personal Story from South Africa.