Childhood NDE's: Special Delivery Letter

During the dark years from the age of 7 to 9 - there was a constant flood of meeting old and new relatives alike.  My other Grandparents lived 500 miles away and they were coming for visits as much as possible and setting up family get togethers just in case the Doctors predictions proved to be true. 

Everyone was calling me and trying to talk to me – and they always sounded pitiful in that they thought it was the last time they were going to talk to me alive. I knew from my ‘NDE’s’ that my body was going to survive the medical condition and I was going to live in this world a long time. My Grandparents didn’t know enough to take me at my word and were taking the Doctors opinion over me. So – I asked my Grandparents if I could write them a letter. I told them the letter would come to them at a time when they were going to get a phone call about a ‘major’ incident that had my parents beside themselves with worry. I told them the letter would get to them before the call and they would know to take my word over the Doctor’s word and stop worrying themselves into an ‘early grave’ over it.

I told them,

“I am going to keep myself hidden because I am going to be naked. Trust me. People done seen me naked and it gives them a fright. Their eyes bug out and they go to screaming and hollering like they done seen Casper.” (I was only 8)

When I turned 18 – I had forgotten about the letter. My Grandparents still had it in a photo album. They told me the story they could remember of it.

My Grandmother said,

“I was sitting in my rocking chair in the living room. There was still light outside shinning into the dining room. Out of the corner of my eye – I swore I saw a paper floating in the air like it was a feather. It landed on the dining room table as pretty as you please. I mentioned it to your Grandpa and thought there was someone in the kitchen who had tossed it through the air. It came from the kitchen. You Grandpa got up and went into the kitchen though the back way and walked all the way through. There was no way anyone could have gotten out of that kitchen. When your Grandpa had searched, he called me into the kitchen and we were both standing with our backs to the back entrance both of us at the same time – heard the same thing. We heard your voice telling us you had made good on your promise and we had to keep our promise and not worry about you when we got the phone call about your latest episode. We walked to the table and looked at the piece of paper. It WAS a letter from you written all neat with your signature at the bottom and that days date at the top of it. It wasn’t a half hour later that we got the call with your Momma crying like she had lost you. Said you were out cold for a long time this latest episode and leading her to think the Doctors were right that you were going to be a goner before things got better for you. It was nothing short of a miracle for us. We asked what time you had been knocked out and it was during that time we got that airmail special delivery letter you had been promising to send us. Me and your Grandpa knew that God was looking after you one way or another after that special delivery letter. We kept our promise after that and put it in the Lord’s hands. We stopped worry about it and decided to take your word on the matter and pay no mind to what them Doctors were telling the family about buying you your burial plot.”

Now (all these years later) I can recall that day like it was yesterday. My spirit departed my body like it had done many time before. My spirit traveled across the State of Texas and Oklahoma in a matter of few seconds and I was standing inside my Grandparents house in Arkansas. (As a ghost of course.) I didn’t know where to find any paper and had to go into the back bedroom to get it along with a pencil. I saw my Grandparents sitting in the living room. I had written the note in the back bedroom and the bedrooms were connected in the back – to a back entrance to the kitchen and dining room. I had deliberately tried to keep myself and the note hidden. I had it in mind they would get the call and then I would be able to tell them on the telephone to look for the note I had left. I wasn’t expecting my Grandmother to see the note ‘flying through the air’ as she said.

When my Grandpa came looking for a culprit – I was standing in the middle of the kitchen and he looked right past me. I was watching him look around opening up cabinets to see if he could find someone and I was standing right there (in spirit.) I was laughing the whole time. When I was a child and my Grandmother got me on the telephone – she asked if I had said something to her. I told her,

“I couldn’t wait Grandma. Ya’ll done went and spoiled my surprise for you by finding the note. You and Grandpa were bickering at one another and I thought that bickering was going to keep you busy until you got the phone call. I thought I would get to tell you to look on the table for the note I left you and it would be a surprise. Ya’ll went and spoiled my surprise – so I thought I would give you another.”

My Grandmother said,

“You surprised me alright Grandson. You surprised both me and your Grandpa. We both about jumped right out of our skin when we heard you laughing like that. I can see now why that sort of thing stuns a body and mind. It was so quick and me and your Grandpa was left wondering if we hearing things or hearing you somehow.”

I told her,

“You stopped your bickering huh?”

It is strange how the human mind works because my Grandfather eventually started ‘claiming’ that one of my cousins (who lived up the road) had snuck in the house some how and delivered that note. He would flatly deny that he believed it in a group setting with other people around. I have no idea what happened to him. I figure he told the story and got ridiculed enough to want to keep that sort of testimony to himself.

Years later he spoke to me in private and admitted that he had seen and heard things around me that led him to have an open mind about the matter – but – he didn’t want the neighbors finding out about his open mind – least they think the wrong thing about it.

He told me,

“Grandson – the only people who know the truth of that incident is me, you, your Grandma and God. God is keeping silent on the matter – so I am going to being following the good Lord’s lead and keeping silent on it myself. If you go talking about it and try to get your Grandpa to back you up on that one – you remember Grandpa is following the good Lord’s example and keeping silent about it. You’re going to find yourself standing alone in that conversation.”

 It was around the age of 8 that I was being led to believe it was the wrong thing to talk about with others.  There was a taboo nature about discussing the paranormal, supernatural or mystical spiritual elements involved in my near death experiences as a child.