"Knowing" - and sure it doesn't prove anything - can be a sixth sense (or should that be "sixth sense"). Moments before I was the victim of a mugging, I "knew" something wasn't right, but there was no apparent reason for me to feel that way. I just knew.

Sorry bit off topic.

"Neither case is proved by saying 'I just know it'."

Well, I agree feetlebaum.

I know nothing. (Was that a line from 'Ello,'Ello?)

I wish I did.

I can't prove anything either, but the fact that I witnessed all these incredible happenings before my Mum died has taught me to keep an open mind. That's the lesson I learned from it.

It is of course consoling to imagine our loved ones are leaving us for another realm - one we know nothing of - and that relatives who have gone before might be there waiting for them. It is some small comfort when we lose someone. We want to believe they've left suffering behind for something better, but of course wanting it doesn't make it so.

All I know is, my mind wasn't playing tricks and I saw what I saw. I've analysed it and discussed it. I don't KNOW anything, but I do now wonder if death is maybe a stage we pass through when we cast off our earthly bodies.

Who knows? I certainly don't.

Last year on returning from a long trip away from home I misplaced my car keys; my car was outside on a single track road waiting to be unloaded. An angry person drew up behind it in his car bellowing at me to move the car. I was frantic, searching for my spare keys which I had hidden so carefully two weeks previously but just couldn't uncover. Just then the phone went and it was a Brazilian friend who believes our ancestors are always ready to help us, but that we have to ask them first; she told me to close my eyes and ask my mother where I had hidden my spare keys. "That's ridiculous," I replied, "she died in 1988." I was desperate so I did it. Immediately my eyes popped open; I went straight to the china cupboard, unstacked a pile of vegetable dishes and voila, my keys.

Some very comforting incidents here Faye. Thank you.

My sister a recently retired minister of religion has sat at the bedside of many people as they were about to die. Many times she had been called to sit with people on their deathbed because their families couldn't be there and in some cases couldn't be bothered.

When my father was dying he was also looking at a particular spot in the room. Dad kept looking over and at one stage he stretched his arms up as though about to hug someone. My sister said she had seen this sort of thing happen many times.

When my sister conducted her first funeral it was sadly for a twenty two year old who was killed in an accident. I remember her saying how devastated the family were at the time. While we were sitting with dad she told us how the father of the 22 year old had recently died and his daughter had been sitting with him during his last days. The daughter had told my sister that not long before her father died he said her brother (the one who had died at 22) and her grandfather and her grandfather's brother were standing at the end of his bed. Later that day she went out for a cigarette, when she came back her father had just died.

My father died at a hospice and while there I sometimes I spoke to another woman while we happened to be in the kitchen at the same time. Her brother, in his seventies, had been there for three weeks. She said he had been doing it tough and there was only his partner and her with him. Before I left the hospice I saw her again and told her my father had just died. Her brother had also died around the same time and she said he had been calling out to their parents and watching something just before he died.

Interesting how it is always deceased family and friends people appear to see. If they were hallucinating I imagine they would see all sorts of things.

I also had things happen rubylady when I was about to leave my ex partner. He was very violent, my DDs feared for my safety. Lots of other unexplained things happened around that time. One time the large sliding door of our huge shed started loudly banging. I could see it moving upwards and then slamming down. No one except us was on the property, there was no wind either. Ex ran outside thinking the fifty year old pine tree had crashed down on the roof. It was a very strange thing to happen, we could think of no explanation.

I believe people will come to their own conclusions, often from their experiences. No one really knows or has all the answers.

gramps! Where have you been? Welcome back! (mendicants allowing, of course)

Mendicants? Beggars? You must have predictive text turned on.

Morphine produces hallucinations!-- Of course it does, so do many other things. Mendicants of both legal and illegal variety, A number of field and garden plants can cause hallucinations. but that does neither prove or disprove the existence of a spiritual nature!

bikergran It sounds like someone came for him. Who would you think it was?

My grandad called us all to his house, I'd be about 22. He told us that his mum had come for him. He was 63. He said he woke up, she was at the bottom of his bed, she walked round to my grandma's side, tucked the blankets in and then walked back. He told us he was about to go and gave us all envelopes containing money. It was what he wanted to leave us. A couple of weeks later they went on holiday, a coach trip with Shearings to Scarborough. He had just had a dance on the dance floor, first night, my grandma had sat back down, he asked her did she want a drink. She said no, he went to the bar, bought a brandy and sat down. He slumped forward. He had had a massive heart attack and had died. He had told my grandma that the tucking the bedclothes in meant that she would be ok. She lived until she was 88, another 25 years. Very strange.

I do know that when I got divorced 13 years ago, I had a very comforting and distinct feeling that I was being "carried" by someone. It lasted about 3 months over the time I moved out of the marital home and into my council house and got it organised. When I was settled and away from my abusive ex husband the presence left me.

I've had a similar experience coming into this house, although not feeling carried the same, just that there was someone with a hand helping me getting this place. I put my bid in for this house in July. I came 6th on the list. I thought no more of it. In September I got phoned up telling me I was being offered it, five other people, for whatever reason didn't get it. It was the one house I had dreamt of getting when I bid. When I looked on the map it is in the middle of a triangle of where my Auntie had lived all her married life. I had found a wedding photo of her a few months before July and framed it and put it up. I do hope she had something to do with it, the house now makes me feel like I have come home to where she was.

approx. 30/40 miniutes before DH died, he looked up at the right hand corner of the bedroom up near the ceiling, his eyes wide open and staring for a about 20 seconds,like there was something there, he then half closed them, I asked him could he hear me? he nodded, he then sort of winced a little and held his right hand side of his chest, I said "are you in pain" but he didn't answer, then about 15 minutes later even though he was so weak he lifted his arm and waved towards the bottom of the bed, (there was no one else there only myself at that time and I was sat at his right hand side up near the top of the bed) he did this two more times, three in all, he died about 20 minutes later, I just wish I knew what he had seen and who he was waving to! it gets very frustrating, he didn't say anything only a little mutter now and then as he had a Morphine patch on. I just wish I knew what he saw and who he was waving to.

I married an angel.

As far as the spiritual kind of angels go ...
Why not?
Angels have a track record across many cultures and there are lots of 'my encounter with angels' type books on the market.
Even if angels don't exist it does us no harm at all to think that perhaps they do.

I believe that morphine makes ill and dying people hallucinate.

I believe that Angels are there to help us in times of distress, The Angels come from the normal spiritual world,here then go through a period of training after their earth life forms are discarded,
They have been argued about for centuries! There are plenty of tales of these Spiritual "people"in most cultures! It is said, but my quotation maybe inaccurate, -" He that hath eyes,let him see and he that hath ears let him hear" , I think that each of us experiences some form of "supernatural"
feeling over our lifetime, The quest is an individual one!

Bert knew whereof he wrote... I don't see what is so strange about it. The comparison is between someone who 'just knew' something which turned out to be wrong, and someone who 'just knows' something about something supernatural. Neither case is proved by saying 'I just know it'.

I do believe in Angels, and have seen a Ghost and experienced dreams that have came true. I will look out for your Book :-)

"My 'strange comparison' was originally made by Bertrand Russell..."

Well, good for Bertrand, but it doesn't make it any less of a strange comparison.

Of course some things are tangible....but when intangible things are experienced it's very confusing and difficult to explain, especially when they happen to someone who likes to makes sense of things, but can't. I don't claim to be anything other than fairly questioning, reasonably intelligent middle aged woman who loved her old Mum and had a deep bond with her.

I cannot explain what happened, I merely recounted the tale because it was an amazing experience, which opened my mind to there being 'more'.

I also appreciate how easy it is to scoff (a normal reaction?) unless you are part of such a strange set of experiences.

My 'strange comparison' was originally made by Bertrand Russell...

The point is that just 'knowing' something to be so doesn't cause it to be so - it is in fact an admission that there is no reason to believe it is so.

Thank you Day6.I do believe that heaven is all around us and that all we have to do is open our hearts, our minds and our eyes but this is not as easy as it seems. There are too many distractions and anxieties.

Thank you Day6 I believe every word and won't it be wonderful meeting up with those special people in years to come? Very comforting.

feetle I also find that a strange comparison.

day6 - thanks for writing that piece, it was moving. You have reminded me (I didn't consider this in the light of the original blog post about angels) - when my mother was terminally ill, she twice did something that was very strange in the days before her death. On one occasion when it was only her and I in the room, she said the room was "very crowded" and that there were "lots of people" there. Later she said my gran (her mother) was also there. My gran had been dead for many many years. Just like your mother, my mother was calm and matter of fact about this. At the time although I found it a bit scary, I just thought she was confused.

Bless her, 48 hours away from death, she got up weakly and with my assistance tried to brush her teeth in the bathroom. On that occasion she told me that she felt "like a fuzzy, out of focus TV picture". I told my brother who pointed out that she had become ethereal, as he said "like a stick of candyfloss in her pink nightie". He said "I think she's getting ready to shuffle off the mortal coil".

How strange the experience of death is.

A strange and poor comparison feetle.

Things I can't explain happened to me...which give me hope and an insight (a personal one, of course) which has most definitely made me open my eyes to possibilities.

As you say, all Aristotle had to do was count teeth, which are tangible.

"I KNOW there is something more out there" - just as Aristotle KNEW that women had fewer teeth than men. He KNEW it, and taught it... Of course he could, I'm sure, have persuaded a passing Greek lady to open her mouth so that he could count her pearly-whites - but no... he KNEW.

And that is all that needs to be said about 'KNOWING' something to be true in spite of having no real data to go on... it ain't worth spit!

I am as cynical as they come but several incredible events took place around the time of my dear Mum's death to make me wonder about there being "more things in Heaven and Earth" than we will ever be able to comprehend. I think keeping an open mind is so important.

When my Mum was terminally ill and waiting on a trolley in a hospital corridor, to be found a bed, I fell asleep at her side. We'd been hanging about for a long time and I'd been up most of the night seeing to Mum, in her home, and then arranging for her ambulance and hospital admission. Mum was sleeping, and I nodded off in the chair, next to her, amidst the hustle and bustle of the hospital. I awoke with a jolt, and there, below the trolley and looking up at me was Mum's lovely old cat, who'd been her constant companion for twenty years. The cat had died just a year before Mum had became ill. It stared at me with it's lovely green eyes for a moment and then turned it's back and walked away, slowly...I saw it's big bushy tail fade into the distance. I had to pinch myself. It was almost as though it had taken over...done a shift looking after Mum while I slept, so she wasn't alone. I could feel a momentary draught by my feet. It was spooky but very comforting.

Later, a day before her death, Mum had asked the lady patient who shared her two bed ward if she could move a chair close to the side of her bed. The lady, Ann, who had a number of ailments had become known to us because of our visiting. She was very sweet, kindness itself. Mum was sleeping when I arrived to visit, but Ann said "Your Mum asked me to put the chair next to her bed because Jim would be calling in to see her soon." Jim, my Dad and her beloved husband had been dead for over twenty years. OK...confusion, because of drugs and sickness? Perhaps. Logical, maybe?

Mum awoke and was happy to see us. She remained coherent and 'with-it' until the end, bless her, her brain still sharp...her reading glasses and book used, and on her bedside table. We chatted about life and she stopped suddenly. "Oh...it's here again" she said. "Can you see it?"

We looked to the end of the bed, where Mum indicated something was going on. "There...against the wall. It's fluttering and shining," she said. "What is it?" My sister and I could see nothing.

"Oh you must be able to see it moving" she insisted. "I don't know what it is though but it's like a torch is shining too..it's glowing.. and fluttering like a butterfly."

We carried on talking after she'd told us it had '"Gone."

"How strange," she said. Mum was perfectly matter-of-fact through-out it all.

We got up at the end of visiting time and started to re-arranged the chairs. Mum stopped us. "Leave that one there please, " she said. "For later." She smiled...was in good spirits. That night she was in pain, and morphine was given. Ann told us she insisted the chair stayed there, for Jim, who promised he'd call in. When we left her late that night, we didn't touch the chair. It stayed by her bed.

She never regained consciousness, and died the next day.

We told the nurses that she'd gone...and had to go the the nurses station to find out what would happen next. Ann's bed, next to Mum's had been freshly made. When we came back, Mum's arms had been laid across her chest and a single pink carnation had been put in her hands. Dad, her Jim, grew pink carnations but we couldn't see any bunches of them on the ward. We'd no idea who'd done this in the few minutes we'd left Mum's side. We asked after Ann, and were told she'd been sent home that morning, with her family. She too had been very poorly, but she'd been an absolute treasure, looking after bed-bound Mum and helping her. A young nurse then piped up "Oh - Ann came back on the ward a few minutes ago. She said she had forgotten something...and she also came to say goodbye to your Mum." What strange timing.

There was an earth angel.... (we thought later) and we never got to see her again, to thank her for her kindness.

That night, after weeping with family,and when everyone went home, I realised I'd lost my Mum...and was alone, and I think whatever your age, the loss of your Mum hurts so much.

I felt so lost...so sad she'd gone. She had been my best, most cheery, optimistic friend and supporter. She loved me unconditionally. Mum had always been such good company, even when frail and dependent upon us. She was a lovely lady...always kind, always there for me. I'd put a brave and positive face on while she was ill. I wore a mask, pretending all was well, but knowing inside that she was dying. I was in shreds, internally knowing her illness was terminal and would kill her. I had to stay strong for her sake though...and assure her all would be well with her beloved family. It was a strain, but a labour of love.

The enormity of her loss hit me at bedtime and I could let the flood-gates open at last. I went to bed. I was truly heart-broken and cried and cried into my pillow...sobs so deep, the like of which I'd never experienced before. I felt lost, and so alone and couldn't imagine a life without my dear Mum in it. I was in my fifties too, so not a child, or a dependent.

After hours of continuous crying in bed I felt bereft, totally heart-broken. I wanted my Mum, more than anything. I wanted to hear her voice, touch her....kiss and hug her one more time.

Sleep wouldn't come. I was in such emotional pain.I was at my lowest ever, knowing dear Mum had died. There were no more tomorrows with my Mum and I just couldn't stop crying. I have never known emotional pain like it, and never experienced such grief.

All of a sudden I felt this enormous surge of warmth....and was enveloped in what seemed like a very soft, gentle and warm quilt, which wrapped itself around me tightly, but was feather-light. I heard a soft rustling noise. I was being held and calmed. It was so strange. I was being caressed, in much the same way as you'd soothe a baby, I was wrapped up, safe, and felt calm and warm, immediately. There were light strokes on my forehead. I was aware of something happening. And then I fell into the deepest sleep.

I truly believe I was visited by angels that night. I'd been wrapped in their wings. I remembered it with such clarity the next morning but felt somehow up-lifted, refreshed and able to carry on. (After a normal night's sleep I don't feel like that!) Something amazing had happened.

So....there it is. From a cynic. It happened to me. Every word true, and each event thought through and examined, time and time again.

I KNOW there is something more out there, and I feel comforted by all that happened. Could some of us be TOLD there is more to this life...another realm?

ty mishap

Hang on in there biker - I wish I could send you comfort. I know your DH would only have wished the best for you. xxx