In the third grade, during the Christmas break, we moved to Oshkosh, Wisconsin to live with my maternal grandparents. My grandfather, John Longard, didn't talk much, but when he did it always seemed to be with wit and wisdom. It was then he told a story that had a lasting impact on me.
The story took place in the fall of 1947 after he had purchased an Indian motorcycle. He soon ran it off the road into a ditch near home. The result was a broken back and other injuries. He then found himself floating up and away from his lifeless body and watched from above as an ambulance crew arrived and loaded his body onto a stretcher. Soon he was met by an angel who took his hand and asked if he was ready to die. His thoughts went to his family, and how they depended on him, so he replied in the negative. Suddenly he found himself back in the ambulance in great pain. Later, the doctor told him he was lucky to be alive, because the accident had bruised his spinal cord.
I found this story to be memorable, and assumed it was an extremely rare experience. It also seemed to be strong evidence that angels and Heaven were real. But not long after hearing this story I was surprised to hear a similar story. It happened after we had moved to Illinois and took a trip to Phoenix to visit my paternal grandparents. Richard Hatch had spent a lifetime farming, but now was semi-retired. Unfortunately, he was suffering from emphysema, a disease his doctor said resulted from farming dust, since he had never smoked.
He told how one night he was having difficulty breathing, and was in torment. Suddenly, he found himself floating above his body in the darkness of his bedroom, and he was totally free of pain.
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He recalled being amused that even though the room was pitch black, he could still see his body as if in daylight.
Then he floated up through the ceiling into a long dark tunnel toward a bright light in the distance. Along the way, he was met by an angel who asked if he was ready to die.
Like my other grandfather, after thinking of his family, he said he was not ready. Then, also like my other grandfather, he found himself back in his body, again in pain.
A
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rd's
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descri
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costs of his motorcycle accident.
At the time, it seemed my grandfathers’ stories were proof that the Kingdom of Heaven was real. Years later, when the book "Life after Life" was published, everyone else became aware such experiences were relatively common. But for me, when I went through a crisis as a teenager, my grandfather's stories, along with the earlier answers to prayer, helped me not discard my faith. •
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