a couple of years ago i was really poorly...was on my daughters birthday,,she was living with me at the time and wasnt happy because i was sick. !!!!! my husband was working abroad, i was so ill i said please call the doctor,,,,,she said your all right,,,,,,,an hour later i managed to get to the bathroom and i collapsed.....i called her and said please call the doctor it was late at night,,,,long story short,,,i shouted oh please help me ,,,someone help me,,,,,,my daughter called the hospital the doctor came,,,while he was downstairs calling the hospital and the ambulance,,,she was packing a bag for me,,,,,,i was back in bed by that time,,,,,,,i saw an angel by my bedside,,,it held out its hands to take in mine,,,,,and said you will be alright,,,,,,,,,,,,,,and soon went, it was all in white,,,as large life i saw it as clear as a bell,,,,,,its large white wings were very clear i could see its every feather,,,they were folded back, it wore a white gown like a tunic tied with a plaited belt of gold, i couldnt make out the face but the hair was golden and slightly wavy to the shoulders, i saw this angel wasnt delerious,,,not on drugs,,,,,,,,,i could draw it i remember it so well, i believe in angels ,,i have seen one,,,,but i am baffled by all the bad things that are happening about us,,,fter all angela are meant to protect us, all the bad things are the work of the devil,,,,a lot of my freinds are strong church goers,,,,they tell me god is as strong as the devil and vice versa,,,,,, there is so much we cant exsplain...but we will get all the answers when we reach heaven so they say,,,,,,,i believe when the devil does his bad things,,,,god takes over and takes us away from all evil,,,,,,thats what i believe and it keeps me going, i ask god why did he take my brothers little twin girls only a few hours old,,,,,,,,,,,,,,i have had the answer over the years,,,,,,he was a bad person,,,,,anyway,,,i did get better and i still believe in angels,,,,,,,

I'd like to

How fortuitous that Hattie - who has just self-published a book - experienced this mystical encounter.

It always amazes me why people believe that God is arbitrary or partial. Why would he save some and let others perish. I read last week that a bloke survived a 150 mph crash. He claimed he now believed in a god? On the same day all these people on the air asia crash perished. A female passenger in the same article claimed that if her father had not developed Hep. C, she wouldn't have had to cancel her seat on that flight, and would have died? Not being confrontational, just been thinking along these lines lately.

Oops, just realised the ? Was do you believe in angels. Well its kind of connected because they are his messengers. If you believe in both concepts.

I was thinking along the same lines alex. I often wonder why some people think themselves so important that they have been "chosen" to survive while many others have not.

Agree! I have been pondering that while reading this thread, which I have been ignoring for a while.

I don"t think people who survive Whatever always think they are important, rather the opposite, racked with guilt for surviving!!

Yes Nonu, and sadly carry it with them for years in some cases

No I don't really as I have posted on a couple of times earlier in thread. The mind does funny thong when stressed. If these "sightings" offer us some comfort that is fine..
Some months after my mother died, which followed just two months on after my father's death, I dreamt that my mother was brought down from heaven hand in hand with her younger baby sister who had died as a very young baby when my mother was two. I had known about this younger child. In this dream I think the baby Margaret, was a young girl. I remember dreaming that I asked my mother if she had met up with my Dad yet and she hadn't.

What to make of that I don't know. Most of us have been steeped in the concept of Angels in heaven meeting and greeting the recently dead. It was very odd for me but it was a dream.

I am not a Christian or a believer in angels but I am beginning to wonder if there are some 'connections' with those who are close to us. After my beloved father died I dreamt I was standing in a place on a local hill where I grew up. To my knowledge I had never been there with my father. When I went back for the funeral I visited the Chapel of Rest and became so upset I ran away on my own without being aware where I was going. I suddenly came to, sitting on a bench in the exact same spot of my dream which was overlooking the Chapel of Rest. I had previously had no idea of where this was. I was overcome with a sense of peace and acceptance and although I miss my Dad I still feel he is with me when I need him.

Sorry to go on ... but my second experience, when my mother died was also very strange. After her funeral I again went for a walk alone to a place which was a favourite of ours when we were children. I was standing in a wood which normally is very silent and has very few birds when suddenly a robin hopped up and sat near my foot! This was odd in itself but I kept having robins come very close for months afterwards, even on the bonnet of my car while I parked up for lunch one day. However what nearly convinced me was about a year later when her older sister died suddenly. She had actually been like a mother to my mother due to the early death of her parents. I was in charge of the funeral and probate arrangements and was very stressed and it was in a part of the country with which I was not familiar. As the hearse arrived at the crematorium a robin hopped onto the fence beside it and sat there as the coffin was unloaded. I felt the same sense of release that I had felt on the previous occasion of my father's death. My sister in law commented that my whole body relaxed and I looked happy! I told her to her mystification that it was all right, my mum was there. I cannot explain this.

Grandma 2213 thanks for sharing this wonderful experience. You write so well. I wanted your experience to continue. Also felt the peace you write about come out from the page. I loved it.

Nothing to really do with angles, but this Christmas we all went to my daughters house, dh died almost 7 months ago now, but when we used to go to daughters house he would sit by the log fire, this Christmas of course he wasn't with us, and I couldn't bare to leave the house without him, so I put his ashes in a rucksack and when we got there I left them in the rucksack and placed the rucksack next to the fire in front of a log that daughters uses for chopping the kindling on.
She was taking random photos of everyone thoughout the afternoon, on one photo my mum is sat to the left of the open fire about 4 foot away from the fire, my dad was sat on the stair steps on the right of the fire, but next to his feet was the rucksack with dh ashes in, when my daughter asked me to look at the photo earlier this week she said "take a look at this mum" the camara has "face recognition! but it didn't focus on my mum or my dad, it focused above the rucksack and took the photo! maybe the camara if we delve into it focusses on the middle of the screen but it is supposed to focus on a face.!

Thanks for sharing that "bikergran".It must be very comforting for you.

The brain is an extraordinary thing. Because one of my hospital social work jobs was with the elderly, I talked with many newly bereaved people, and several were deeply disturbed by the fact that they "saw" the lost loved one at home in the months after the death. I always likened it to looking into the sun and then looking away - the image still lives on in our brain for several seconds afterwards. Sometimes people would think they were going nuts, and I used to say that the loved one was a part of their lives and their very being and always would be, and their brain had not yet acclimatised to the absence, so would go on seeing the person for a while and to just take comfort from it. It seemed to help - I hope it did.

I suffer from migraines and it causes some very weird visual and other sense distortions. At first they are frightening as you think you are going mad, but you do get used to them.

I love the story about the robin - that is lovely.

as yet I haven't had anything happen to me to believe in angels or anything like that...I suppose we "look" for things that we think may comfort us, I will investigate my camera as mine too has face recognition...if there was anything "after death" Im sure dh would have somehow done something to comfort me, as yet I feel no comfort .. but who knows we can never know can we..!

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

ty mishap

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?

"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!

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.

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.

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.

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.