Terrifying Near Death Experience

This was a frightening experience. I was just a small child when this event occurred..

In 1956 I lived for a short while at Aunt Kate's house on Browning St in Norfolk Va. My aunt Kate had persuaded my young mom and dad to allow me to live with them, for my very first year of school at Sacred Heart.

Kate thought it would be best for me to attend Sacred Heart School with her young daughter Maureen. Maureen was 8 years old. She was a sweet child, and I had no problem getting along with her..

She had long braided brown hair and blue eyes She was their only child. I loved my cousin Maureen. She was fun to play with, and had a vivid imagination.

Maureen taught me magical things about fairies and a magical Mountain Lady. She would often sprinkle fairy dust on me, telling me it was from the "Mountain Lady".

My Uncle"s name was Claude. He was a quiet man, who didn't say much. I remember he was always bent over in his shoulders. He had arthritis that had crippled him, when he was young man.

They lived in a scary brown house on Browning St.. The house was dark and foreboding. There was strange noises there. It had a big magnolia tree in the back yard.

 I later learned that this was the house where my father would grow up in! My father grew up during the depression. Abandoned as a infant, by his father, it would become a house of horror, for dad, and his two older siblings Kate and George.

My grandmother, had been an abusive alcoholic. After my grandfather fled to Vermont, she was left alone. She had to raise her three children alone, without his help. My grandmother was abused as a child. She was not loved and as a result of her childhood abuse, she turned to alcohol to escape her pain.

My Aunt Kate, related to me, how once as an infant, my father was lying in his cradle. For some reason, Kate was sitting in the cradle with him. She said, "her mom in a rage, threw a brick at the chandelier on the ceiling. The chandelier exploded into pieces, and the glass reigned down on my dad and her..

 Kate related, "another time, when she and I were looking at old family pictures of her and her family, I found a picture of her that I was admiring. She said, "this picture was taken after my mother threw a brick at my head, and cut my forehead deeply. My bangs covered up the injury. She said this happened to her when she was 12 years old.

Later her mom butchered a beloved dog, that my father loved, in a horrible way, to break his spirit. My father never broke down and cried.This event would change my father's life in a drastic way.This happened when he was a child.at this dark foreboding house. The saga of abuse would continue until the children moved away.

It would be many, many years, before my grandmother would change but she did change. She was kind to me when I was a child. She began tutoring children in her later years, to help those children who could not read..

It was later learned that my grandfather, had drowned under mysterious circumstances. The family had been told it was a suicide or possibly a gang murder.

This house wasn't like the new house, I was used to living in, on Little Bay, by the beach.

I didn't like staying at Kate's house even though Kate would fix my blond hair into golden curls like Shirley Temple.

Aunt Kate was nice. I didn't understand why she wouldn't allow me to play with the children next door.

I missed my mom terribly. I would get terrible headaches every week. My mom was my favorite person. I loved her and I didn't like being away from her. I missed her wonderful smiles.

Uncle Claude would take me home on the weekends to see my mom.and dad. On Sunday evenings, I always had to leave my mom to go back to that dark house. I dreaded going back to Browning Street.

One day after school, my cousin said, Lets go to the attic. The attic was located on the 3rd floor of the old house...My Aunt Kate was not there at the time. She was attending night school, studying to become a teacher. Uncle Claude was downstairs. He was babysitting us..

Something did not feel right, when we went up to the attic that night. Aunt Kate, had previously told Maureen that she was not to light any matches, but Maureen did not listen.

She told me she was going to light some candles, while I drew my letters on a small blackboard on a table.

Maureen placed a lit candle next to my left arm. A short while later, I looked up. My long sleeve shirt was on fire.

.I began screaming and running around the attic..My clothes were ablaze, and my left arm and hand were burning..

My cousin finally grabbed a quilt and threw it over me. She beat out the flames.. I was terrified and in tremendous pain.. Uncle Claude heard my screams. He came running up the long winding stairs, to save me.

He saw how badly burnt I was. My left arm was all black, and red. My left hand was burnt badly. Uncle Claude took me to the hospital with third and second degree burns..

It was scary for me. I remember that DePaul hospital sent me home that same night with Uncle Claude, after they had given me medical care for my burns.that night, They applied alcohol to clean my wounds and removed some of the charred skin.They wrapped a bandage on my arm.

My Aunt and Uncle did not tell my parents about the accident for about a week. They took me home on the weekend with my arm and hand all bandaged .

My mom told me years later, that the Ocean View amusement Park roller coaster also caught on fire at the same time that I was injured..she always thought that was a strange coincidence.

I was sent back to my Aunt's house..which was a mistake, because one of the older nuns, at school, kept grabbing my burnt arm..

My uncle always drove us to school every morning and I was always late for Mass! Sister Lydia, my first grade teacher, was always upset with me because I was late.

She would often grab me by my injured arm. Soon I began to develop gangrene..

The doctors considered amputating my arm, but decided to try surgery.as a last resort.. I remember the surgeon gave me ether during surgery, I went through a long tunnel..

I saw the angels.in a beautiful golden light..They were all there, Jesus, Archangel Michael and Raphael. I loved them all so much. It was so warm and loving there.They told me I had to come back, here, for it wasn't my time to leave..

I remember waking up late at night. It was dark, and the hospital personnel said" I"d slept all day"..I wanted my mom...I missed her so, and she was gone...

The operation went well..and the skin graft the doctors had performed, saved my arm and my life..I had a terrible scar on my left arm, and one large square scar on my left thigh, which resulted from the skin graft,.but I was going to be fine.

Jesus and the Angels were with me, and after that experience, my psychic abilities came into being.. I have always felt strongly that the angels saved my life that day.

They prompted my cousin, who was a child herself, to throw the quilt over me".

Maureen told me years later, "that I looked like a candle all lit up" Clothes were not fire retardant in those days"

Maureen said, "after my accident, she quit talking for a year, because she felt she was going to be killed for lighting the candles, and disobeying her mom"

I told her I was sorry, that she'd had to live with that kind of guilt. I told her, "that I was fine now"!

After that first school year, I was reunited with my mom and dad. I never had to live away from my family again, until I chose to move away.

. My angels and guides have always been with me, protecting me.