Encountering Heaven and the Afterlife

8/9/2019 Encountering Heaven and the Afterlife

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Your Personal Invitation to . . .

Adventures in theAfterlife

Lets take a hypothetical excursion: Suppose you and your spouse

completed the paperwork or a new lie insurance policybut health

care being what it is these days, the company requires more than just

a stack o signed orms and an at-home blood draw rom a visiting

nurse. So this morning you are scheduled or a physical at your doc-

tors oce.

Once there, you nd yoursel being poked and prodded by your

physician. She presses a stethoscope to your chest, wraps a blood-

pressure cu around your bicep, and asks about your amily history

and other potentially embarrassing questions. So ar, so good. But

this kind o physical requires something more: Youve got to complete

a brisk walk on a treadmill, with electrodes taped to your chest and

attached to a nearby monitor.Okay, you can do this. You consider yoursel to be in reasonably

good shape. Whats a little uphill climb on a moving conveyor belt?

But twenty minutes into the test, with the treadmills speed


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E n c o u n t e r i n g H e a v e n a n d t h e A f t e r l i f e

increasing as quickly as your drops o perspiration, something seems

wrong. You eel pressure in your chest. Tightness. Like someone has

put a bigger version o the blood-pressure cu around your uppertorso and started to infate it. Then you notice a tingling sensation in

your let arm. Suddenly lightheaded and nauseous, you stumble o

the treadmill and collapse on the cold tile foor.

Fade to black.

The next thing you know, you are in a dierent place. Its not

your doctors oce, but it still eels medicalstark walls, antiseptic odor,

chrome-plated instruments, fuorescent lights, and lots o scurrying,

unamiliar people wearing white and green. Theyre also wearing

concerned expressions. Furrowed brows, narrowed eyes, clenched

teeth.

Its you they are concerned about. You realize youve been taken

to an emergency room. A tall woman with graying hair utters the

words myocardial infarction. Huh? Someone else says, heart attack.Oh, that.

You notice that youre lying on a gurney, metal guardrails at your

sides, a spider web o tubes and wires tangled around your limp body.

Strangers rantically turn knobs, push buttons, jab needles into your

fesh. Then you hear it . . .

Youve heard the sound in movies and lots o those hospital dramas

on TV. Its the EKG machine that suddenly spews out a shrill, high-

pitched blaring noise, reminiscent o your smoke detector at home. You

look over just in time to see the once-jumping, squiggly line go fat.

Fade to black once more.

Now the questions begin. Assuming the above scenario really

happened to you (and its certainly a possibility or any one o us),

what do you think comes next? The physicians and other medicalpersonnel swarming around you, despite their best eorts, declare

you dead. Now what? Youre going to have the adventure o your

lie, thats or sure.


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A d v e n t u r e s i n t h e A f t e r l i f e

Yes, some people are lucky enough to get resuscitated. But what

i you werent among the ortunate who died and lived to tell the

tale?Researcher Dinesh DSouza asks the question that has been on

the minds o human beings or millennia:

Is death the end, or is there something more? This is the

ultimate question. It has been the dening issue or entire

cultures rom the ancient Egyptians to the present. And in

truth, there is no more important question that any o us

will ace. It is the issue that makes every other issue trivial.

I you have doubts about its signicance, go to a hospital or

a uneral or talk to a parent who has recently lost a child.

You will discover very quickly that the apparent normalcy

o everyday lie is a sham.1

What happens the moment you die? Where will you end up?

How will you get there? When you arrive, will you know people?

Will angels escort you to your next destination? What are heaven

and hell really like?

The scene described above is not ar o rom a real-lie drama

that unolded in the lie o Earl Foster, pastor o Faith Community

Church in Shady Hills, Florida. For him, the prospect o fatlining on

a gurney was anything but hypothetical. On March 16, 2006, Earl,

age sixty-three, lay on a table at New Port Richey Hospital while

medical personnel began a blood transusion. Suering rom diabetes

and a condition that causes low blood counts, Earl had accepted this

procedure as a necessary requirement to keep him well.

But something went wrong. Terribly wrong.A ew minutes into the procedure, his heart stopped, and in an

instant he ound himsel up in a corner o the room watching as phy-

sicians tried to shock him back to lie with a debrillator. From his


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hovering position, Earl elt a vague sense o disappointment at their

attempt to revive him, and he wasnt sure why exactly.

A split-second later, he discovered himsel no longer in the hospitalroom, but somewhere indescribably beautiul. An overwhelming sense

o peace swept over him. He knelt beside a stream to drink the cool,

clear water rom his cupped hands. Across a lush meadow, he saw

his old dog, Ram, running as ast as he ever did and leaping over the

meandering brook to greet his owner. Earls long-lost cat, Pu, came

scurrying up behind. As Earl reached out to meet them, he spotted his

sister, Margie, with both legs perectly okay and working neeven

though she had died with only one leg.

Following her down the grassy hill were his mother and ather,

happy and healthy, with no signs o the heart attacks that had ended

their lives on earth. Soon Earl was surrounded by his grandparents,

looking much younger than hed ever seen them, and a welcoming

horde o aunts, uncles, cousins, and riends. Everyone appeared sorobust and ull o unmistakable joy.

Right then I realized that complete healing lies ahead or every

child o God, Earl said. The blind will see exquisite vistas, the dea

will hear blissul music, cancer will disappear, and the illnesses and

ailments o old age will vanish.

It suddenly occurred to him why he elt disappointed that the

medical personnel were trying to jump-start his heart. He didnt want

to return to his earthly lie. Now he knew he never wanted to leave

this place. But soon enough, he woke up to nd himsel back on the

hospital table. Thanks to the miracles o modern medical technology,

Earl had no other choice but to conclude: Heaven can wait.

Earls near-death experience (NDE) and glimpse o paradise echo

thousands o similar stories. His vivid recollectionsas clear in hismind as yesterdays gol game or trip to the coee shopgive us all a

oretaste o things to come.

For most people, one NDE would be astounding. A lie-changing


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event, to be sure. For Earl, though, a repeat perormance lay ahead,

only with a dierent encounter on the other side.

A year and a hal later, on August 26, 2007, Earl was back in thesame hospital or another routine blood transusion. Apparently or

Earl such commonplace procedures are anything but routine. Once

again his heart stopped and, as he was later told, he had no measurable

signs o lie or two minutes. This time, he immediately elt surrounded

by light and propelled orward.

Suddenly he was stopped by someone who stepped in ront o

him. Earl recognized his brother, Robert, who had died the previous

year o cancer. He put up his hand and said to Earl, Its not your

time. You have to go back. You have to endure. You must continue

on with your lie.

Disappointed, Earl asked, Why do I have to continue on? You

didnt.

You still have work to do, and I squandered much o my time,Robert said. You still have work to nish. You have to keep on.

Then Earl asked him, How will I know when I am nished?

Will it be soon?

Robert said simply, You will know!

Earl desperately wanted to ask what it was he had let to nish,

but he abruptly regained consciousness on the treatment table. A phy-

sician stood over him, paddles in hand, while nurses bustled about.

He hadonce againbeen shocked back to lie.

In the pages ahead, well present to you more than thirty stories like

Earls, and not only about near-death experiences leading to a glimpse

o heaven (or hell). Well also tell o deathbed scenes where the nalvisions o dying people open a window, ever so briefy, into the next

world. Well share the experiences o men and women certain they

were visited by deceased loved ones. Well highlight the unexpected


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visions and spiritual insights that oer unique perspectives on the

aterlie. Well show that angels and demons travel rom the spiritual

world to our physical world, either to help or harass human beings.Well even share tales o ghost appearances.

This isnt a book lled with comprehensive explanations, convinc-

ing elucidations, or cogent expositions rom the Bible. Rather it is an

eclectic collection, oering an intriguing look into the lives o ordinary

people who have had extraordinary spiritual encounters. But youll nd

much more than poignant and gripping tales: Youll gain a peek into the(usually) invisible world that surrounds us every second o every day.

Gathering insights rom a wide-ranging compilation like this is akin to

working a jigsaw puzzle. Most people complete the fat-edged border

and then go about tting together piece ater painstaking pieceuntil

at last the picture is whole. When you read a single story in this book,

youll hold a puzzle piece in your hand, a small but vivid portion o

a much larger picture. By the time youve read all the stories, youll

have a airly well-rounded understanding o the aterlie.

Well be right up ront with you: Some o the topics covered here

will bolster your belies and ortiy your aithbut others will challenge

and stretch your thinking. Who knowssome may make you angry.

We acknowledge that some o the issues presented are controversial

and may elicit incredulity. The Bible, our ultimate source o spiritualwisdom, is clear and explicit on many areas, but vague or silent on

others. It is up to each o us individually, with Gods help, to seek the

truth. Our hope is to open a helpul dialogue, not a heated debate. More

so, we hope to open minds and hearts to the reality that the spiritual

world is real, buzzing and swirling all around us. (The last book we

wrote together, Heaven and the Afterlife, covers a wide range o topics andis jam-packed with explanations, theories, and theological perspectives

to help guide you through conusing or controversial issues. It would

be a useul companion to the book in your hands.)


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In addition to stimulating discussion and thought, our purposes

or presenting these ascinating narratives are to demonstrate that:

The division or distance between the physical world and the spiri-tual world is incredibly thinlike tissue paper. Its probably more

accurate to say there really is no distance. Beings with bodies and beings

without occupy the same space, just on dierent planes. Sometimes

theres sucient overlapor a door thrust open between worldsto

oer the opportunity or physical and spiritual entities to meet ace-

to-ace. Further, theres much more two-way trac between this world

and the next than most people realize. The accounts in Part One o

this book provide anecdotal evidence that people regularly do make a

round trip rom earth to heaven (or hell) and back again. According to

the Bible, and supported by eyewitness testimony, angels and demons

requently leave their domains and interact with humans.

The more we learn about lie beyond the here and now, the less

likely we are to be unnecessarily fearful. We know the majority opeople ear deathand many are downright terried o it. When we

understand that dying really is a matter o crossing over to another

place, were empowered to ace our own death, or even the death o a

loved one, with courage and peace. The spiritual encounters o reliable

individuals supply us with valuable insights into what lies ahead. For

those who have placed their trust in God, an amazing new place awaits

us. Scripture assures us that God is love and love casts out ear.2

The mystery and magnifcence o God make lie (this one and the

one to come) an amazing adventure. There will always be skeptics

among us, those who come up with rational, scientic explanations

or spiritual phenomena. But those who have spiritual aiththose

who acknowledge theres much more than what we can see, taste,

smell, hear, and eelshould remain open to the possibilities that Godworks in our world in surprising and unexpected ways. Why should

we limit the vast, creative, and unpredictable God who created heaven

and earth and everything in between? Solomon wrote, As you do not


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know the path o the wind, or how the body is ormed in a mothers

womb, so you cannot understand the work o God, the Maker o all

things.3

Through stories we gain hints, glean clues, gather inerencesthat help orm our belies about the aterlie. But there will always be

mystery and intrigue about the supernatural worldat least so long as

we reside on terra frma. This is a book that embraces the unknowable

mysteries o God and his creation, even as we explore what is know-

able through the real experiences o reliable people.

Most o all, we hope these stories point readers to the living and

loving God who desires a close relationship with every person on

earth. As the apostle John wrote in his New Testament gospel account:

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,

that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal lie.

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,

but to save the world through him.4 That is the very essence o any

discussion or dialogue we have about the aterlieGod has preparedan indescribably wonderul place or you to spend eternity, and he

wants to enjoy it with you.


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Doubter . . . orQuestioner?

Jim Garlow

I have a conession to make: I am an unlikely candidate to write this

book. I have never had a near-death experience. I have never had a

glimpse o heaven. I have never, thankully, had an up close look at

hell.

Further, I have never seen an angel (as ar as Im aware o). I have

only once seen afullydemonized man. Only one time have I been

attacked by a demon, or at least that is what I think occurred.

Unlike the people in the pages that ollow, I have never had an

unusual visitation o any kind. Although I have been a pastor or

decades, I have no personal deathbed scenes about which I can write.I have never seen a ghost. The one opportunity I had to witness one,

I promptly and cowardly passed up.1

And what about dreams and visions? Only three, rankly. I have


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had thousands o dreamsall o them jumbled, generally wacky, and

largely orgotten by the time both eet hit the foor. But I have had only

three experiences that would qualiy as bona fdedreams or visions inso many years o ministry, all o them long ago.

Thus, I am an unlikely candidate to publish a book on these

topics. And the experience o my coauthor, Keith Wall, is not totally

unlike my own. He has had several strange coincidences that point

to dramatic spiritual involvement in his liebut, like me, nothing that

has been in-your-ace obvious and apparent.

There is another reason I am an unlikely candidate to coauthor this

book. My greatest struggle in my Christian aith is not the normal

temptations I have observed in others. Instead, or as long as I can

remember, I have privately battled an internal and persistent question,

What i all I believe is wrong?

I dont consider mysel an intellectual, but my Christian struggles

have been primarily in the intellectual arena, as opposed to the tempta-tions o the fesh that seem to plague others. In act, truth be known,

the likely reason I continued on an academic journey that included

three masters degrees and a doctorate o philosophy in historical

theology was because o the nagging thought, What if all I believe is

wrong?I wanted to make sure I knew truth.

Flowing out o that question emerged a avorite biblical personality:

Thomas. While preachers railed on Thomas or being the doubter,

I identied with him. He was my hero! And still is.

As you might recall, Thomas was not present when Jesus rst

appeared to his close circle o riends. When they announced to

Thomas that Jesus had in act been resurrected, Thomas responded

with an understandable, Unless I see [or mysel] . . . I will not believe

it.2

Others call that doubt. I call it smart! I would have said the samething. Thomas was not a doubter. He was a questioner. And as such,

he wanted the acts.

In contrast to the wonderul Scripture passages to which many tend


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D o u b t e r . . . o r Q u e s t i o n e r ?

to gravitate, the one that remains among my avorites is: I do believe;

help me overcome my unbelie!3 I have lived with the tension o those

two seemingly conficting claims rom age nine to the present.In the end, the evidence or Christ and the Bible was and is so

breathtakingly convincing: The Bible is true. God is God. Jesus was

born o a virgin, lived a sinless lie, was crucied, died, was buried,

and rose on the third day, and is coming back to rule this world. And,

yes, there is a heaven and a hell, and everyone is going to one place

or the other.

There is another reason that I am not a likely candidate to write

a book on the ethereal realm. I am an amateur historian. My last two

academic diplomas were in the area o history, which is something

quite tangible. History pertains to events that have occurred within

time and space. But some o the accounts you are about to read seem

to dey both, at least at times. I eel quite comortable with time and

space. Heaven and the aterlie sometimes seemhow do I say this?intimidating, daunting, and nebulous topics.

It is important to distinguish between being rational and rational-

ism. Being rational is a good thing, as the mind is one o the greatest

o Gods creations. Rationalism, in contrast, is arrogance in assuming

that onlywhat I can know (see, taste, measure, quantiy, and so on)

and understand is real.

In summary, I approached this project with a healthy dose o well-

ounded skepticism. Along the way, Keith and I used reasonable and

consistent vetting techniques. To accept stories as valid, one o us either

needed to know the people personallywith rsthand knowledge o

their integrity and credibilityor we had to know someone with a high

degree o reliability who could vouch or the person being proled. In

those rare cases where we did not have such knowledge (which wasonly one or two instances), contact was made with a credible pastor

or person in leadership to discern the character o the storyteller.

Furthermore, the other criterion was that the individual had to be


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still living. We did not want to rely on secondhand inormation, even

rom people we knew to be trustworthy.

We admit we are not social scientistswe are, in a real sense,reporters. In contrast to our previous book, Heaven and the Aterlie, in

which we presented in-depth explanations and scriptural discourses,

we oer ew theological or practical assertions regarding what you

are about to read. We are ollowing the proverbial we report, you

decide approach.

In act, we concede that we do not know how to explain many o

these accounts. And we eel no compulsion to do so. Our response

to some o the stories, perhaps like yours, is Could this really have

happened? How is that possible? But we elt it was not our place to

tamper with the stories, to somehow t them into our constructs or

preconceptions.

We do have deep convictions and make no attempt to hide them.

We believe the Bible to be absolutely true, in everything it says andarms. We believe the Bible is a reliable guide or every aspect o lie,

particularly as it pertains to the pathway to heaven. We believe the

Bible is the Word o God. In act, you will see that we arm scriptural

warningsin both our books on this topicwhen we make the case

that a person should never attempt to communicate with the dead, as

that is clearly and strictly orbidden in Scripture.

Keith and I approached our rst book on heaven, hell, and related

topics with great inquisitiveness, not ully certain o all the pathways

we might take therein. We approached our second book with a low-

grade skepticism, a sort o maybe-but-maybe-not mental ramework,

uncertain o what we might encounter.

The process involved a division o labor. I threw out the net

to gather stories, ollowed up with hundreds o contacts, proddedor details and nudged or inormation, and vetted individuals we

wanted to prole. I then classied and codied the nearly our hun-

dred accounts that came in. Using a team o wonderul assistants, we


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D o u b t e r . . . o r Q u e s t i o n e r ?

developed a system o categorizing and rating or completeness. It was

at this point that my enthusiasm or the project really grew. What we

were uncovering was a gold mine. With hundreds o credible accountsemerging, we began to see consistent patterns. People, unrelated by

time and geography, were reporting remarkably similar experiences.

I cannot tell you the number o times someone said or wrote to

me, I have never told anyone this, but . . . Or I know people might

think I am crazy, so I have told very ew people.

Once the stories were collected, Keith began the challenging task

o selecting which ones to include. Then he began the process o

interviewing and writing that resulted in the book you now hold in

your hand.

Remarkably, only three eatured individuals chose to use pseud-

onyms. One did so to protect another person in the story. Two others

preerred to remain anonymous because they know that the rationalism

and skepticism o their colleagues would jeopardize their proessionalcalling. It is sadbut probably not surprisingthat their co-workers

might believe that nothing could possibly exist that they cannot sci-

entically measure.

I have close personal connections to many o the individuals ea-

tured in these pages. But the account to which I am most personally

tied is a story we debated includingthe death o my nephew Chris-

topher Garlow in a ery and truly reak car catastrophe (see the story

Never Far Away). This occurred only one day ater the ocial

release oHeaven and the Aterlieand a short time beore I began work

on its ollow-up, Encountering Heaven and the Aterlie. The devastating

experience brought all o these issues into vividand tragicclarity

or me.

As you will learn, I had sent advance copies oHeaven and theAfterlifeto my brother and his amily. Ater Christophers passing,

I learned that he and his amily had read our book and discussed

heaven at some length.


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As I write this new book on the aterlie, emotions are still raw

or me as an uncle who perormed the uneral. But they are especially

so or my brothers still-traumatized amily. It is or that reason that Idedicate this book to Christopher Garlow who, on July 16, 2009, at

age twenty-one, encountered heaven and the aterlie.


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Eyewitness Accounts

People who have had near-death ex periences bring back

vivid descriptions of the pathway to paradise

and descent into darkness.

I you were to travel back in time a hundred years and ask your great,

great grandmother what she knew about NDEs (near-death experi-

ences), shed probably give you a blank stare. Question her about

fat-lined EKG readouts, clinical death, and heroic emergency-room

resuscitationsand she would think youd been nipping at the mul-

berry wine again.

But i you were to ask her to tell you the stories shes heard about

people whod had a brush with deaththe ones who saw beautiul

bright lights, visited with long-dead relatives, or elt a sense o over-

whelming peace and love, Granny would most likely smile and say,Oh, that!Why didnt you say so?

Although modern medical technology has made it possible or

morepeople to die and return with tales o incredible out-o-body

p a r t o n e


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journeys, the truth is, its been happening throughout human history.

Literature records variations on the experience rom nearly every

culture on every continent. It is only in our time o mass communica-tion that such accounts have entered the mainstream o our collective

conversation about death and dying.

That trend picked up speed in 1975, the year Dr. Raymond Moody

put his proessional reputation as a psychiatrist on the line and pub-

lished a little book called Lie Ater Lie. In its pages, he attempted to

tackle a question that most serious scientists wouldnt touch with a

ten-oot polethough it has haunted human beings or millennia:

What happens when we die?

Ater studying the rsthand accounts o hundreds o people who

had crossed over and returnedthat is, people who had survived a

lie-threatening crisis, sometimes ater a complete loss o measurable

vital signsMoody coined the phrase near-death experienceto describe

the phenomenon. Most intriguing was the act that the stories hegathered were remarkably similar to each other. He ound that while

no two NDEs are identical, most had one or more core elements in

common: a eeling o being out o ones body, moving through a

tunnel toward a bright light, and encounters with angelic gures or

deceased loved ones.

Other ar less requently reported stories reveal decidedly dark

and hellish experiences. Dr. Maurice Rawlings, author oTo Hell and

Back, believes such traumatic NDEs are vastly underrepresented in

literature, giving the impression that death is always a doorway into

bliss. In his view, the mind quickly walls o painul memories, so

that hellish experiences ade rom conscious awareness much aster

than positive ones. Furthermore, he says, Hell cases also remain

unreported because o personal ego and the embarrassment o it all.Patients dont want to discuss a matter that conrms ultimate ailure

in lie, an overwhelming deeat, a slap in the ace.1

Early research by Rawlings, Moody, and a ew other pioneers in


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E y e w i t n e s s A c c o u n t s

the eld triggered a veritable avalanche o interest in examining such

stories or clues as to what lies on the other side o death. Since then,

dozens o studies have documented thousands o NDEs among peoplerom various religious traditions, demographic groups, and cultural

backgrounds. Scientically minded researchers have looked or purely

chemical or biological explanations or the extraordinary experiences

survivors describe. Theyve analyzed oxygen deciency, blood pres-

sure, drug-induced hallucinations, and even the nal, rantic rings o

synapses in the brainjust to name a ew possible culpritsin search

o a mechanistic cause or the NDE.

That thinking dominates the medical proession as well. Doctors

are trained rom day one to purge their practice o anything that isnt

scientically veriablean unortunate attitude that has done more

than anything else to suppress open-minded NDE research.

In his book Evidence o the Aterlie: The Science o Near-Death Experi-

ences, Dr. Jerey Long, an oncologist and NDE researcher, writes:

I heard ar too many stories o the problems NDErs encountered when

they tried to tell their near-death experiences to the medical sta. One

o the classic stories was a patient who told his doctor about his NDE

in ront o several nurses. When the patient nished telling his story,

the doctor looked up rom his clipboard and said, Dont think too

much about it. It was just antasy.

When the doctor let the room, the nurses closed in aroundthe crushed patient and said, Its not antasy. We hear about

these events all the time rom patients. Doctors like him live in

antasy. They never hear these because they dont listen to their

patients.2

Still, in spite o so much highly motivated reductionist research,

science has ailed to identiy a smoking gun to disprove what NDEstories strongly suggest: that human consciousnesswhat theologians

call the soul or sometimes reer to as the spiritsurvives beyond bodily

death. In act, as you will see in the ollowing pages, people who have


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been there oten report a heightened and enhanced quality to existence

that is ar beyond mere survival. Most speak o eelingmore alive

while out o their bodies than they ever have beore. They experiencetremendous reedom, unconditional love, and indescribable peace on

the other side. They commonly want, more than anything, to remain

thereand they only come back out o a sense o compassion or their

amilies, unnished business on earth, or simply because they are given

no choice by loving beings who turn them back with the words, Its

not your time yet. You have more to do.

I nothing else, NDE survivors have convincingly challenged the

popular nihilistic notion that nothingawaits us when we die but a

permanent lights out. Not true, they say. Every single person who

has crossed over and returnedand thousands o these accounts are

availablewould say emphatically that there is absolutely, denitely,

unquestionably a world beyond this one.

We collected the stories that ollow to oer glimpses into theaterlie. Like single drops o rain that become part o a mighty river,

each story contributes something vital to our understanding.

Jesus said, In my Fathers house are many rooms; i it were

not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place

or you.3 NDE stories may not give us a detailed foor plan o the

place he has prepared or us, but they at least oer a tantalizing peek

through the window. They teach us important things about how tolive in thislie, how to grieve the loss o someone we love, and what

to expect when the moment o our own death arrivesas it will or

each o us, without ail.


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1

Heaven on Wheels

A Harley-Davidson motorcycle, a tragic

accident, and a trip to the afterlife that changedAbby Cleghorns life forever.

Six eet tall, with a salt-and-pepper goatee and boyish smile, Win

treated Abby like a queen. He told her he loved her with all his heart,

and indeed shed never elt as loved in her entire lie. Win gave her

strength, helping her move past the painul memories o the abusive

marriage shed once been in. They got engaged in November and

made plans to marry ater the New Year.

One Saturday morning in December, they took Wins truck over

to the Applebees restaurant in their hometown o Aiken, South Caro-lina, meeting up with riends or the annual Make-A-Wish Foundation

Christmas party. Win and Abby brought toys and visited with the

kids. It was a wonderul morning.


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That evening, it was back on the motorcycle and a short ride into

Augusta or the Harley-Davidson Christmas party. As Win steered

his bike up the highway, Abby wrapped her arms tightly around hiswaist and smiled.

Unexpectedly, Abby saw her mother rst, and then her sister. She

wasnt on the motorcycle anymore, but standing beside two women.

Abby shouldnt have recognized her sister at all, since Patty Lynn had

been stillborn two years beore Abby was born. But there she was, a

woman who looked to be in her thirties; and Abby, orty-our, knew

immediately who she was.

Abbys mother was the rst to speak. Abigail, she said, Its

not your time. You need to go back to be with your kids and your

grandbabies.

Abby said, Yes, maam. But she didnt move. Go back? How in

the world was she supposed to do that?

Her sister said gently, Abigail, did you hear what Mama said?

I did, Abby replied, but I can only go so ast.

Patty Lynn urged, You need to quit talking and get going.

Abby turned and saw a eld o the greenest grass shed ever seen.

Walking toward her, arms outstretched, was Win.Cmon, baby, he said in the playul drawl that had always melted

her heart. Were going to be late.

But I cant go with you, Win, she responded. Mama told me

to go back.

I dont think you want to go back, Abby, he said. You dont

know how hard its gonna be or you. I you go back, youre goingto have to be very strong.

I can do it, she insisted. Ill have the Lord with me, helping

me along the way.


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H e a v e n o n W h e e l s

Win paused and said, I you do go back, I want you to do

something or me.

What is it, Win?I want you to remember that I love you with all my heart.

The next thing Abby remembered was lying in a hospital bed,

hooked up to monitors and beepers. Sitting in a chair next to the bed

was Tabi, one o Abbys stepdaughters rom her previous marriage.

Tabi seemed overjoyed. Mama, Im so glad youre awake! I

wanted so badly to tell you the news.

Abby blinked. News?

While you were asleep, Tabi enthused, I ound out that Im

pregnant!

Abigail, its not your time,Abbys mother had told her. You need to

go back to be with your kids and your grandbabies.Abby, still groggy, struggled to orm the words. You ound out last

night? Who nds out theyre pregnant in the middle o the night?

I didnt nd out in the middle o the night. Mama, youve been

asleep or ve weeks.

What Abby didnt know was that on the evening o the Christmas

party, she and Win had been just three blocks rom home when a car

driven by a teenager veered into their lane and hit Win and Abby

head-on. Win died at the scene o the accident. Abby was thrown ty

eet and had to be airlited to a hospital. In the helicopter, she died

three dierent times and was resuscitated. She suered severe injuries

to her brain and throughout her body. Shed spent the next ve weeksin a coma, surrounded by riends and amily.

Two visitors practically lived at the hospital while Abby was in

her comaa woman and a young girl Abby had never met beore.


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The pair was the mother and sister o the young man whose car had

killed Win, and they visited Abbys amily almost daily.

Shortly ater Abby awoke rom her coma and learned that Winhad died, one o the nurses said, Abby, someone is here to see you.

The boy who was driving the car that hit you is here with his amily.

What should I tell him?

Most o Abbys memories o lie beore the accident were gone.

She could barely remember the man she had promised to marry. In

act, her clearest memory o Win was standing with him in heaven ashed said, I want you to remember that I love you with all my heart.She was

trying to remember that he loved her, but it was a tall order when she

could barely remember their lie together at all.

Her brain injury had also aected her emotions. Abby couldnt

seem to muster any eelings, including sadness or even loss. She didnt

remember how to cry. Even so, the thought o meeting the young

man who had been driving the car that had taken so much rom her

evoked a strong wave o . . . something. Anger? Regret? Resolve?

Unable to put a name to it, Abby looked at the nurse, who was still

waiting or her answer.

Tell him no, Abby said. I cant see him. Not today. Maybe not

ever.

Abby spent the next two months living with her daughter Beth,who was devoted in taking care o her mother, and ve more months

living with Tabi. Abby was in a wheelchair, and her let hand had been

paralyzed. She had lost all depth perception. The greatest injury had

been dealt to her brain. In addition to losing all her emotions as well

as memories, she couldnt remember to do simple things like take her

medicine or eat.Even recollections o things Abby had done or known most o

her lie were gone. One day she and her stepmother, Pearline, were

driving home rom one o Abbys requent doctor appointments when


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Pearline suggested grabbing something to eat rom McDonalds. Car

idling, they sat at the drive-through window. Abby was silent.

Sweetheart, Pearline said, you need to tell me what you wantso I can order or you.

Abby looked blankly at her stepmom. But I have no idea what

kind o ood they serve here.

Recovery was slow as Abby relearned how to walk. Because o the

brain injury, she had to ocus on one thing at a time. Even breathing

took conscious eort, and sometimes Abby orgot. Family and closeriends knew to remind her, especially i she called them on the phone

in a silent panic.

Her most meaningul victories came as she began to reclaim some

o her memories and eventually some o her emotions as well. One

day Abby opened up the le on her computer containing all her pho-

tos. Looking at pictures shed taken o Win and the many places they

had visited, she elt a ew o her own memories starting to stir. Her

emotions, however, took longer to heal.

For two years Abby elt nothing. Looking back, she says now that

it was as i she didnt know how to have a eeling. On the two-year

anniversary o the accident, she sat in her living room, looking at the

wall where shed hung a photo o Win. Suddenly she elt a lump in

her throat. The next thing she knew, she was crying. It was a majorbreakthrough. Ater several minutes, though, Abby realized something

was wrong. She could eel it in her chest. Tears still orming small

rivulets on her cheeks, she picked up the phone in a panic and called

one o her girlriends. As soon as the woman saw Abbys name on

caller-ID and heard the silence on the other end o the phone line, she

knew what to do. Breathe, Abby! she said rmly. Breathe!Some days Abby thought about her last conversation with Win.

He had told her, I dont think you want to go back, Abby. You dont know

how hard its gonna be or you.As she struggled to reclaim her lie, there


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were days she wished she had listened to Win and stayed right where

she was.

One Sunday morning, Abby was watching the television programHour o Power. On that show, a woman shared how she had been driv-

ing on the reeway when someone on a bridge threw a bottle o acid

at her car. It not only broke her windshield, but the acid also splashed

all over her, leaving her disgured. She talked about how, in time and

with Gods help, she had ound reedom rom bitterness, even nding

it in her heart to orgive the assailant.

Abby oten attended church and prayed, but shed never been one

to eel any consistent direction rom God. At that moment, though, it

was as i God gave her a nudge. She went to her phone. With a ew

calls, she obtained the number o the amily o the boy whose car had

changed the trajectory o her lie orever. Speaking to his parents, Abby

said, Id like him to know that I orgive him. Can you give him that

message or me?One evening soon ater that, Abby was in a restaurant. As the

waiter relled her water glass, he commented on how the best part o

his job was getting to meet interesting people who had done unusual

things.

Abby laughed. You havent heard anything yet! I died ater a

head-on collision and have been to heaven!

The young man stared. Tell me more.

Abby told him her story. As she nished, tears lled his eyes. My

brother died six months ago, he said. Ive been so worried about

him, but youve given me comort and hope. I cant tell you how

much that means to me.

Abby let the restaurant convinced that she had just experienced

a divine appointment.On another occasion Abby was at her doctors oce, when she

ound hersel in a conversation with a technician. Ater hearing about

Abbys visit to heaven, the woman said, I know you were meant to


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be here today and to tell me your story. My dad died about eight

months ago, and my mom has been so upset she hasnt even been

able to go into their bedroom. I needed to hear your story so I couldtell it to her.

Beore long, Abby noticed that almost everywhere she wentdoc-

tors oces, restaurants, coee shops, hardware storesshe met people

who had questions about death or about God. Time and time again,

they ound comort in Abbys story o what she had experienced.

One day Abby told a riend, Beore the accident, I was close to

the Lord, but I cant say I took the time to really listen to anything

he was saying to me. Now I hear him on a regular basis, telling me to

share my story with the olks he brings across my path.

Today Abby walks with a limp. She still has limited memories

o her lie beore the accident and continues to have to relearn the

most unexpected things. I wasnt eeling well recently and went to

my doctor. He said, Are you eeling nauseated? I told him, I haveno idea what that word means or what its supposed to eel like. She

laughed. It wasnt until I threw up in his oce that we gured out

that, yep, Id been eeling nauseated!

Win is buried in Williston, twenty miles rom where Abby lives

today. She has never visited his grave and says she probably never

will. I dont need to see dirt, she explains. I can see dirt anywhere.

I know where Win is. Ive seen him there.

Abby continues, What Win told me in heaven came true. Com-

ing back was harder than I ever thought it would be, and I needed to

be strong. Without my experience in heaven, I dont think I would

have been strong enough or what was ahead o me, what lies ahead

o me still. But what I told him in heaven was true too: I can do it. Ill

have the Lord with me, helping me along the way.Ater she saw Win in heaven, Abby got a tiger-paw design tattooed

on her ankle. Win graduated rom Clemson University, and the paw

print is the logo o their mascot, the Clemson tiger.


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Its a symbol o strength, to be sure. Its also a reminder o the man

who once gave her the courage to love and whose parting words gave

her the courage to live. Abby says its in honor o someone waitingor her on a eld o the greenest grass shes ever seensomeone who

loved her with all o his heart and, she believes, loves her still.

Documents

Encountering Heaven and the Afterlife