The auto accident when I was 17:
I was working for the Perris Volunteer Fire/Rescue department when I was a senior in high school. We were called out for an auto accident on Temescal Canyon Road. A car being paced by an Elsi-nore Police Car crashed into a cement embankment for a railroad underpass. The two girls in the car were instantly killed. When I arrived on the scene, I saw that the driver was a girl I had dated a couple times when I was at Elsinore High.
The house fire:
After I graduated from High School and went to work for the Fire Dept. in Perris, we answered a call for a structure fire. The wooden frame house (shack, really) was totally engulfed. The babysitter and one child got out of the house. The three younger children didn’t. When we got the fire out we found the children huddled together in a bedroom.
Charles Brown:
Charlie was a very good friend of mine while in prison. He was a very intelligent man that always asked my counsel on many matters. He wound up going to the infirmary because he felt sick. They diagnosed him with viral flu. It was later discovered that he had double pneumonia. When he was transferred to the Huntsville Hospital, I lost my lead operator on the computer system he and I worked on and a very good friend. His sister wrote me two weeks later saying that he had passed away. I wrote a letter back to her telling her that he had been misdiagnosed, but I never heard back from her again.
The rest of the paper is self-explanatory. Well talk more about it when I next see you.
Twice in my lifetime I’ve had ‘near-death’ episodes. I’ve never told anyone about them for fear of being thought crazy. Because of those two episodes, death does not bother me as much as it may bother others. In my life, I can only recall four deaths that moved me to tears: Dijianet’s, my Aunt Judy’s, my dad’s and Cathy Sharp’s. I’ve seen a lot of death in my life: as the bugler playing ‘taps’ for military funerals in the Air Force; Nita Severson’s ex-husband’s funeral; Jesse Brown’s funeral; an auto accident when I was 17; a house fire when I was 18 where the children died in the flames; the Casares girl that I am wrongly accused of; and those previously mentioned above. When I became aware of the deaths when I was 17 and 18, I was very upset at the unjustness of death coming to someone so young. It wasn’t until 1971 that I came to terms with the passage of our corporeal lives.
Both Bonnie and Cheryl know a little about how I feel about death. Cathy Sharp and I were sitting in my apartment one night listening to some music and watching the fish in my aquarium. She asked me how I felt about death. I asked her ‘why’? She began a discussion that went on into the early morning hours. We spent all night talking about death, GOD, UFOs, paranormal experiences and more. I found out that she shared almost the exact same thoughts that I had on the same subjects. Like me, she was in no way fearful of death. Again, like me, she was concerned about the manner of her death: She didn’t want a lingering death. (I don’t want a painful death.) Cathy got what she wanted: Death came instantly. A dream she told me about was fulfilled. In her dream, she said, death would come with collapsing metal and glass. (Her thought was that she was going to be caught in a building damaged by an earthquake.) She also said that she would die alone: “A singular death.” Less than a week later she died in a traffic accident. The driver of the other vehicle was drunk and survived the accident. I’ve only had this type of discussion with one other person. A month afterwards, Charles Brown was dead of a mis-diagnosed medical problem in prison. He was told that he only had stomach flu.
The first time I had a ‘near-death episode’ was in l971: About 3:00 in the afternoon my appendix burst. I was gotten to the hospital by 3:30 pm. I was not operated on until after midnight. For more than nine hours poison circulated throughout my abdominal cavity. I don’t know if it got into my blood or not. According to Riki Mandel, my nurse, a weaker person would not have survived what I went through. I knew why I was still alive.
While I was unconcious, I left my body. But I was sent back. However, before I was returned to my body (after the surgeons finished operating on me), I found out what happens to us when we die. I also found out a lot more. And that’s why death doesn’t scare me.
The second time I experienced a ‘near-death’ episode was when I had my motorcycle accident in 1988. Again, while I was unconcious, I left my body. Once more, I found out what awaits each of us when we die. This time I was told that it was still too soon for my ‘arrival.’ I was told that I have much more to accomplish before I am to be ‘called.’ I’11 never forget the words or the voice that explained many things to me.
Several times after my motorcycle accident, Bonnie would remind me that I could have died in that accident. I told her that I would never die in any kind of automotive accident. I will not die a violent death. I will die in my sleep, flat on my back. And according to what I’ve learned, I will meet death no time soon. Death is still far from me. And I saw the deaths of others whom I know. I was saddened when it was revealed to me that my Dad would not live to see my daughter born. When I last saw him in the hospital, he was in a coma. I knew that he would never recover from it. I ‘saw’ his death back in 1988. In my family, my mother’s death will come next, then Bobby’s and Kenny’s. Don, Roberta and Deena will live long after I’m gone. I’ll not go any farther into this though. Nobody should know when they are going to die. It has a detrimental effect on a person’s sanity.
I’ve told Bonnie, Cheryl and several others, when talking about my motorcycle accident, that I didn’t die because something more is expected of me. What that something is or when or where I’m supposed to do it, I have no way of knowing. Yet, I do know that I will not die until I’ve accomplished whatever it is I’m supposed to do. Events are supposed to take place that I will have a direct bearing upon—events that will have a direct bearing upon me!
As I’ve already explained, in 1971, my appendix burst and I was rushed to the hospital by private car. When I got to the hospital, I was informed that all of the operating rooms were in use because of a shootout on the north side of Fort Worth. I was told that the only thing that could be done for me was to run IV’s into me and keep me hydrated. Sometime later, a nurse came in and gave me a shot, to ‘help’ me sleep. I found out later that it was to help ease the pain. Evidently I went to sleep because the next thing I knew Teryl was telling me that it was midnight and that I’ll be going to surgery soon. Finally, someone comes to take me to the operating room. I notice a clock on the wall is showing after 12:30 am. Before I’m wheeled into the O.R. though, I’m out again.
I suddenly feel very light, like I’m floating. I open my eyes and notice that I’m floating near the ceiling, looking down on myself and several people in green. I am unable to understand exactly what they are saying, but something seems wrong. A nurse is injecting something directly into the tube attached to my arm. Someone quickly places a mask over my face and I see someone else, like he wants something in a hurry. I think this is a weird dream, that the medication must be making me hallucinate. Then I feel something pulling at me from behind. I turn toward the pull and everything seems to go dark. I was suddenly rushing forward, moving without trying to. I could sense a couple other people near me, but I couldn’t see anyone. I was experiencing a sensation of very rapid speed, when I saw a light far ahead of me. As the sensation of speed increased, the light took on a bright glow and seemed to be getting nearer.