Andre Hartslief
I had just received the dreaded message that none of us want to hear, EVER!
“So, sorry to have to tell you, The doctor said with a grim expression: the lab findings are positive… you have emphysema, a kind of lung cancer. Unfortunately, it’s in an advanced stage and it’s incurable. You had best get your affairs in order.”
It’s certainly not a message anyone wants to hear, much less a young father of 42 with three young children. First, there is an overwhelming feeling of self-pity, well, at least that’s how I felt. Not every smoker dies from lung cancer, so, why me? Both my parents smoked, uncles and aunts, most of them did, my two brothers and my sister too. Yet, the smokers that died in my family, all died from non-smoke related causes. There was a whole universe of smokers everywhere, but I had to get the nasty big “C”.
As if it wasn’t bad enough, that I had gone completely blind a year earlier and had to have lens implant surgery, or that I was a diabetic, I was slapped with cancer too. One night, while at the limit of my pain threshold, and with a double dose of morphine, much as I avoided the mention of it to my young wife, I had a feeling that I was hitting the HIGHWAY, (literally), that night. I remember, the pain was relentless and then, quite suddenly it had vanished.
I was about to tell my wife that the morphine had kicked in, and I was fine. When I attempted to speak there was no sound coming from me. Utterly confused, I focused on my surroundings. “I” was floating around near the bedroom ceiling. Kind of gazing down towards the bed, I saw my wife pounding my chest and crying. That was even weirder. I thought to myself that I was probably just dreaming, accept, the scene wasn’t changing… I thought: “God, am I dead?” And a somehow, familiar voice answered: “Yes, you are!
My first thoughts were for my wife having to battle raising our children on her own. Then I started bargaining with this entity, God. I said, “you know, that I tried harder than anyone I know to serve you, and this is how you reward me?” There was a brief pause then He spoke, saying, that I had started to doubt His existence and lacked proof, so He will be sending me back, fully cured and that I must work even harder because my time is on earth is short. “When you are restored look for these army I.D. tags you had lost, you will find them on the pelmet above the bedroom window and realized that this did happen.”
The next moment I felt as if I was rapidly entering my body in a beam of light, going through my navel. After explaining to my wife what I had experienced, I got up from the bed and walked over to the window, where I found the tags, exactly where the Voice had said they would be… To be continued.
Thanks for sharing your story here Andre.
It is extremely interesting to me, and shows us all that life is more than which meets the eye.
The weight of life is not carried by us alone, but is carried by all who are around us, and when we die, like that, they pull at our body to try to bring us back, and so here, I think that your wife also helped you here too, to return to her too.
These words of yours, are extremely, prophetic: “The weight of life is not carried by us alone but is carried by all who are around us, and when we die, like that, they pull at our body to try to bring us back, and so here, I think that your wife also helped you here too, to return to her too.” People look for angels, while all the time they are everyday people doing extraordinary work, all around us.” Why is it so hard to believe? The Bible defines an angel plainly and simply, as “bearers of glad tidings.” Not those ladies in a long white flowing robe flitting around with a pair of feathered wings.”
Thanks, you are right of course.
Yes, angels are everywhere.
And we are all touched by their outstretched wings sometimes, which equate to being beams of love, shining out at us, from their hearts, that are caring deeply, for even us too.
That’s what touched by an angel really means.
Thank you once again for sharing your words of wisdom and encouragement, they are warmly received, my friend.
Thank you. I am glad that you agreed with my thoughts too, and that I could give you some encouragement too. We all need such encouragement, at times.
Glad you are still with us Andre. I know you have struggled for awhile with physical issues. You are an inspiration.
Thank you, Carol, for your kind words, it means a lot to me since you have not had an easy life yourself as no loving mom should ever have to go through the heartache you have experienced, your pain is no less significant than the anguish Mary, Jesus’s mom went through. 🙂
Thank you, maybe that is one reason I have such empathy for others. Take care and keep sharing your words of inspiration.
that is a powerful story, the questions run deep on this one. Wow. here is a first, I am speechless.
Well, I tried my best to stay within the rules in the days and years following the mysterious goings-on and it’s been 30 years since. The only two people more stunned by this were the two pulmonary specialists who had been working on my case. Professor Tolksdorf the senior of the two refused to believe what, he saw. Where the first exrays showed advanced stages of emphysema, the second set I had done 10 days later were of healthy lungs. He asked me about the systemic pain I should have been experiencing and I said that I was completely pain-free. he immediately took me to the radiography department where he personally oversaw the taking of a third set of exrays which had the same clear results. He went from an agnostic to a Christian within a matter of moments.
There is so much in this world that cannot be measured the way we measure things. THis is a great story!
Thank you for acknowledging this weird story, Doc, it means a lot to me.
you are most welcome, there is much in this world we cannot see or understand. So many things longer than the yardstick we have to measure them. We have to have an open heart and open eyes.
Thank you for sharing that with us. I have heard stories where people died for an instant and then were ok again.
I had witnessed at least 3 other OBE’s (Out of body experiences) in the years following that. I needed to gauge interest in the subject before discussing other such occurrences I had witnessed in the years since. I am not trying to sell any ideas or religion, I merely thought to share this in case, someone else had experienced something similar in their lives.
Is the disease for real or is it just part of the dream? Sometimes I get confused when the story is too long.
Make it easy on yourself, don’t read my content.