“I was sinking down, down the wide black funnel.  A cool breeze told me I was traveling fast.  Down and down as the funnel narrowed.  Down and down.            Suddenly, a brilliant White Light almost blinded me!  I started crying.  I had no body…yet, I was crying.   My essence was sobbing, crying! “No!  No!  Please!  I can’t go!  Not yet!  No!”  I begged. The most gentle, loving voice spoke through the light. “I want you with me.” Panic filled me. ”Oh, no!  Please!  There’s something more I have to do!” “Oh, but I want you with me.”  The gentle, loving voice tried to convince me. “Please, I’ll do anything!  Mom would die!” “I want you with me.  Here.” “I’ll do anything!  Just tell me.  Tell me, please!  Anything! “Very well,” the voice still gentle, still full of love, replied. I stopped crying.  Panic turned to peace as I asked. “Tell me.  I’ll do anything!” “You will know when you have done what it is you are to do.”          Incredible love, peace and joy filled my essence. The White Light vanished as my essence began moving up the black tunnel.  I was just about to reach the wider part of the funnel when, suddenly, I was hovering near the ceiling of the operating room, looking down at my own body on the operating table.             Doctor Preston had ripped off his operating mask, which hung around his neck.  His big hands grasped my shoulders.  He was shaking me.  His face was inches from my face.  He was yelling my name, over and over. Nurses were running around, wheeling up equipment.             The scene faded. I was back in the black funnel, where it grew wider, the cool breeze carrying me rapidly toward the top. I could hear my name being called as though across many mountains, very far away, very, very far away. “Nadine…Nadine…Nadine…Nadine…”         It was getting closer, the sound of my name, closer and closer.  Over and over, I heard, “Nadine…Nadine…” Abruptly, I heard my name said in the same dimension.  I opened my eyes to Doctor Preston’s face in mine, shaking me, saying my name, “Nadine!” I could see the nine lights above Doctor Preston’s now smiling face; then once more, the blackness grabbed me and swallowed me up.           It was as if no time had passed, for when I opened my eyes again, Doctor Preston was sitting on my bed, holding my hand.  He smiled, a shadow of a smile.  He had been by my side for hours.  He had only snatches of sleep since I had been brought into the emergency department shortly before nine o’clock on Good Friday night.      The exploratory surgery on my abdomen failed to reveal a ruptured spleen as he had pre-diagnosed. There was massive bruising of my inner organs but no internal bleeding, at least, not in my abdomen.             I managed a half-smile, “Oh, Doctor!  I have to tell you about my dream…the dream I had in surgery!” I told him, every detail so crystal clear.  With every detail, tears welled in the big man’s eyes.  Tears ran down his cheeks as I finished.  His lips quivered with emotion.             “Wasn’t that a wonderful dream, Doctor?” He shook his head from side-to-side, took a deep breath, and swallowed hard, “That was no dream, Nadine.  We had lost you. You were clinically dead for two-and-a-half minutes. That was no dream.” So, here I am, celebrating yet another anniversary of being a ‘medical miracle’!  For a time after returning home one year ago, I was on hospice.  Because of the prolonged high body temperature, I suffered major brain trauma which is diagnosed as Dementia II.  All of the in-home medical staff were stunned to learn that I had also been diagnosed with congestive heart failure while hospitalized with the double pneumonia. For months, I was in total bliss. I had no idea how ‘bad’ I was. I could not figure out how to work the telephone. I kept hanging up on people, thinking I was answering the phone, but pushing the wrong buttons.  It took me 30 minutes one time to make one telephone call.  I feared the phone.  I fell 27 times in 22 days – three of those were serious falls with injuries, including bruising the bone in my right partial knee-cap. (My miracle leg – but that’s another story). I glued my hands. I burned my hands under scalding water.  Those are only some of what I remember one year later.  I spent those months in oblivion – in total bliss.  I told the medical staff that I had to ambulate – that it hurt my brain to try and sit still!  I told them I understood now why people with Dementia or Alzheimer’s always wanted to go walk about, their brain hurt to be still! I have forgotten much.  How do you remember what you forgot unless someone reminds you?  Believe me, you do not remember! Today, I celebrate that I have most of my faculties. I can drive again after many months of not being able to do that.  I no longer fall, but my peripheral vision is not that great.  In a conversation, I THINK I jump all over the place and ‘lose the plot’ of what I am trying to say.  Somehow, it all has worked out.  I can write much better than converse – or at least I THINK SO. The White Light is still collecting on my ‘promise to do anything for additional life’.  How do I know?  Because I am still here!  I receive what I refer to as ‘Divine Signs’ from The White Light telling me ‘this is part of fulfilling my promise’ made 51 years ago this upcoming Easter Holy Days.  I have died on the operating table several times since that time, each time The White Light guides me, reassures me.  One thing I do know.  It is my job to be an inspiration, and a blessing, to all I come in contact with – whether it is in the virtual world through my writing, my web site, social media, or my volunteerism. Now it is time to focus on writing the screenplay for a pilot for a television series based on my life.  I have written five autobiographical books.  The series is entitled, Journey Of A Soul.  And my life, it is all that and so much more.  Here I am, a walking medical miracle.  A bright soul functioning in a temporary physical body – working on fulfilling the never-ending promise ‘to do anything for additional life’.  A fool’s promise.  Why?  Because we all have eternal life! P.S.  I am donating my body to the University of Southern California – Department of Medical Sciences – it will be a treasure trove for medical research and even after I have finally fulfilled my promise to The White Light.  I will still be contributing, continuing to be an inspiration and a blessing!  That gives me great joy! © Jussta All Rights Reserved Views:]]>