Back from the Dead

Ghosts, spirits, paranormal, hauntings- I had never believed in any of them until...

It's common knowledge that light and shadows can play tricks on the mind, but this was no shadow! Holding the lantern high in the pitch-dark hallway, I caught a glimpse of a man, or what appeared to be a man, before he simply vanished.

My grandmother was recovering from a stroke and had just come home from the hospital. She was in her late eighties and the doctor said there was nothing more he could do for her. But Grandmother knew her time was close and she wanted to die at home in her own bed. I was fresh out of college and wanted to be with her in her last days.

Having lost both parents in an auto accident when I was five, my grandparents raised me. Grandfather worked long and hard to take care of Grandmother and me. He made sure we never went without anything we needed and even put me through college.

Grandmother and I were devastated when he passed away during my second year at college. I knew when Grandfather passed that it would only be a matter of time before losing my grandmother.

Thunderstorms were quite common during the summer months in Kentucky and usually very intense. I was awakened about midnight by an earthshaking roar of thunder and quickly left my bed, running to the light switch. The electricity was off.

Knowing that my grandmother, in the bedroom down the hall, was probably awakened by the startling thunder, I groped in the darkness for the lantern.

Heavy rain pounded the roof of the old house and drip drops could be heard falling into containers, which had been placed around to catch the rain that leaked through the ceiling as I held the lantern high to get my bearings.

Walking across the small room and out the door into the pitch-dark hallway, turning in the direction of my grandmother's room, I saw him! The faint figure of a man. I shrieked, raising the lantern.

He vanished.

Wide eyed, shocked and terrified, my feet froze to the floor and I couldn't move. Lightning flashed, followed by booming thunder. He appeared again. I jumped back. "Oh my god- Grandfather!"

He vanished.

Thinking for a moment that I was going to lose consciousness, I searched the dark hallway, waiting for him to reappear. Before long, I felt what I can only describe as energy or a slight disturbance in the air as if something had passed close by me.

Heart racing, I made my way to Grandmother's room and hurried inside, closing the door behind me. "Grandmother," I said worriedly, sitting beside her on her bed. I just saw . . ." Her hand was like ice. She was dead.

No one believes me when I tell them what I saw on that stormy night. Light and shadows can play tricks on the mind, but what I saw was no shadow! I believe I saw my grandfather, and I believe the disturbance I felt in the hallway was my grandmother, reuniting with him.

Thunderstorms produce a lot of energy, disturbing the atmosphere, and quite possibly exposing things which are normally unseen- by the living.

My grandparents were Christians and tried to teach me about salvation through Jesus Christ. However, I felt that I was too intelligent to believe in such things. They urged me to ask Jesus to come into my heart so that I could be with them when I died. I refused.

After seeing my grandfather in the hallway that night, I began to search the scriptures to try and understand what they believed and why. I had read it before but the words never really meant anything to me until then. They seemed to jump right off the page and I was absorbing it like a sponge.

My conclusion: There IS a living God and my grandparents are with Him. Ashes to ashes and dust to dust is the final destiny of us all. Some who die are escorted into the presence of God by angels, while others go the way of all who refuse to obey His command; which is to believe on His Son.

"Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent." (John 6:29)