Date of experience:           August 1975

Length of time between death of deceased and your experience:          immediately during dying process

Was the date of the experience significant in any way?     No, he was picking up cattle approx 100 miles from home, and was to return home that same evening after dropping off cattle and truck at processing plant.

General geographic location of experience:  I was in Spokane, Washington at our family home.  Husband was in Cottonwood Idaho loading cattle. When accident occurred, he fell from catwalk, after chasing cattle in 100 degree plus weather, and had an immediate heart attack and immediate death.

Details of location of experience and your activity at the time of experience:  Actually, this event started 2-3 weeks earlier, when I awoke one night, in the middle of the night, and was froze.  I couldn't speak, yell or move.  I smelled death even though I never was around a dead person to know what death smelled like.  When I finally became unfroze, I screamed in bed, and told my husband that someone was going to die.  I, for the next 2-3 weeks thought it was going to be me.  I worked as a paralegal, and immediately had wills prepared and told my boss some personal info in the event of my death.  I also had my husband promise me he would finish raising my kids, and likewise, if he went first I would finish raising his.  We had only been married 3 months with a blended teenage family.  Garry seemed very nonchalant about my concerns, but I was an emotional wreck expecting the ball to drop at any time (for me.) 2-3 weeks went by and nothing happened so I was beginning to relax and chalk it up to a nightmare.

Then on a Saturday, 3 weeks later, having forgotten about the incident and being overly excited because my new step daughter and I had enrolled in a belly dancing class, I talked to my husband on the phone, and he said he'd be late coming home and he was real tired, but don't hold supper for him.  That was the last I heard from him, but 3-4 hours later, I was feeling a strange sense of wonderful euphoria, so at peace, so much love surrounding me, and I knew Garry wasn't coming home.  I can't explain it, but I experienced his crossing over, and it was the most peaceful and loving emotion I have ever experienced.  It was wonderful.  When the shock of his death set in and I came back to reality, that was a different matter and I still grieve for him today-38 years later.  It was such a shock that he was gone, that I literally loved him from the grave and never remarried.  However, the emotions that I write of only last for hours before normal emotions set in.  I wish I could experience that love and peace that engulfed me for such a short while.  After he died, then all the experiences I had about me dying left and those feelings never returned also.

Degree of bereavement for deceased immediately prior to the experience:     No sadness and/or grief feelings

Degree of alertness immediately prior to experience:         Fully alert

After your experience, did you consider the contents of your experience:       Wonderful

Have you had multiple experiences?   No       Was this experience difficult to express in words?          Yes

there are no words to described the peacefulness and encompassing love that enveloped me.  I have nothing to compare it to , to put into words.

Did you ONLY sense an awareness of presence of the deceased without actually seeing, hearing, feeling or smelling them?       

Yes

Did you hear the deceased or hear something associated with the deceased?          No

            Did the voice or sound seem to originate externally or outside of you, inside you, or did you not hear a voice or sound, but had a sense of knowing what was communicated?      all feelings came from inside me and outside of me at the same time. I heard no voice, just thoughts

            Was there any possible impairment to your hearing at the time of the experience?   no

Did you feel a touch or experience any physical contact from the deceased? Yes

slight breeze on my face every night for weeks.

            Was the touch familiar or unfamiliar?   it was not normal to feel a breeze on my face when in the house.

            Was anything communicated by the touch?  I just felt his presence every time  the breeze was on my face, which was every night for weeks, until I told him, he needed to go on, that I would be all right, and I would take care of his daughter (14),

            Is there any possibility what you felt was from any other source present in the surroundings at the time of your experience?           no

Did you see the deceased?         No

Did you smell a distinct smell, scent, fragrance or odor associated with the deceased?      No

How do you currently view the reality of your experience?           Experience was definitely real

            Was the experience dream like in any way?   No

Describe in detail your feelings/emotions during the experience:           euphoric

Was there any emotional healing in any way following the experience?           No

no, I mourned the way any human would mourn for a lost mate, after reality set it.  I was mad he left me.

What was the best and worst part of your experience?      the wonderful euphoria during the death experience, and being mad for months after that he left me, and he left me with a lot of earthly problems.  I often wanted to crawl into the casket with him.  morbid I know.

Has your life changed specifically as a result of your experience?         Yes    

Did you have any changes of attitudes or beliefs following the experience?   No      

Did the experience give you any spiritual understandings such as life, death, afterlife, God, etc.?  Yes           

Death Compacts are when two or more living people promise among themselves that whoever dies first will try to contact the other(s).  Have you ever made such a compact?   Yes

yes, we talked about it.  we were both worried,  as we had teenage children that needed to be parented.

Did you observe or hear anything regarding people or events during your experience that could be verified later?     Yes his time of death, considered with what I was experiencing, 100 miles apart.

Was the experience witnessed or experienced by others?           Yes

Garry's teenage daughter was experiencing some paranormal thoughts at the same time, but she doesn't talk of them.

Did you have any sense of altered space or time?   Yes

Did you have a sense of knowing, special knowledge, universal order and/or purpose?    Yes

I felt my purpose was to raise his daughter, and he knew he had to leave this earth,  we had only been married for 3 months, so it seemed like once we got the kids settled in, he died, and he was leaving his daughter in good hands.

Did you become aware of future events?       No

Did you have any psychic, paranormal or other special gifts following the experience that you did not have prior to the experience?  No

Did you experience a separation of your consciousness from your body?     Yes

Did you meet or see any other beings other than the deceased?            No

Did you see a light?           No

Did any part of your experience seem to occur in a place other than the location described above?          Yes

not on earth, somewhere in the atmosphere

Have you shared this experience with others?    Yes     seldom, no one understands

Have you shared this experience formally or informally with any other researcher or web site?            No

Were there any associated medications or substances with the potential to affect the experience? No

Following the experience, have you had any other events in your life, medications or substances which reproduced any part of the experience?         No 

Did you ever in your life have a near-death experience, out of body experience or other spiritual event?       No 

Did the questions asked and information you provided accurately and comprehensively describe your experience?                     Yes