Whenever I hear that someone's relative or friend is ill and
near death, I always tell them what hospice physician John
Lerma told me: Find out if the person says he's recently had
visitors, especially from people he once knew who are dead.
When that happens, the person usually dies in 4 days. He
noticed this in his own practice and compared his experience
to that of other hospice doctors at a conference on palliative
care, and they all agreed on the same thing: People died 4
days after the visit.
I told this to a very old friend, who wrote me this note after
his father recently died: "Anne, you asked if my Dad had any
visitation experiences in the days prior to his death. He did. It
began last fall when I saw his Army buddies in the shadows
above his bed checking to see if he was ready to cross (he
wasn't). Some days before he died, he told my sister that he
had a conversation with a little boy. This morning I asked my
elderly uncle if he knew of any little boys who died whom my
Dad knew. He said that he had never told me, but that there
was a kind lady friend of their family who gave one of the
boys in the neighborhood some money for candy (a boy my
Dad knew), and he took it and ran across the street and was
killed by a car. She was devastated, and it wrecked her life. I
had never heard this story before today."
Other interesting news comes from someone I consider a
friend, although we've never actually met: I have written
two
Diaries about her. This is a woman who was diagnosed with
a brain tumor, so she identified with me, since I also spent
time in the hospital with a brain injury. She recently wrote me
and told me she is doing fine. She says, "I have recently
become friends with a young man who is currently fighting
brain cancer. Our stories are very similar, and I can only
hope that he will experience the magical feeling of life after
cancer, as I have done."
We recently had supper with someone I call the Dark Lady,
because she is so sure that mankind has only dark days
ahead. But can our future be that dark when it contains such
magic?
Related Entries:
31-Aug-2010: Cocooning
10-Aug-2010: A Trip to Crop Circle Country
27-Jul-2010: Marriage: Hot & Cold
06-Jul-2010: Marcelle
27-May-2010: A Trip to Esalen
11-May-2010: The Birds
13-Apr-2010: Staying Open
31-Mar-2010: I was an Angel for Easter
23-Mar-2010: Nuns I Have Known
16-Mar-2010: It Started With a Hummingbird
