Great question, right?
You can google this question or google Near Death Experiences and you will find hundreds, if not thousands, of stories of people who have seen that there is something waiting for us beyond death.
Here are two examples of stories that touched me personally.
The first is about Germaine: She was a close friend of our family, and about ten years younger than my mom, Jeanne.
They had a great relationship and our families spent many Sundays together.
Germaine and Jeanne promised each other that the first to die would be the first to welcome the other into Heaven at the time of death.
A little bit like what St Gregory preached at his close friend St Basil’s funeral: “Basil, welcome me also in your dwelling when I have departed this life.”
My mom passed. Both families went their separate ways and we had very little contact after that.
One day, out of the blue, Germaine’s son calls me. I knew Germaine had been seriously ill, so I was nervous.
This is how the conversation went:
“Hello Christian.”
“Hi Daniel, I assume you don’t have good news.”
“Yes and no. My mom passed an hour ago.”
I was stunned. I hadn’t talked to Daniel in years, and here he was, calling me right after his mom passed.
“My Mom,” he continued, “had been in a coma for several days, she wasn’t responsive, we were all with her.
And then, she sat up in her bed and smiled. She was overjoyed and called twice: ‘Jeanne, Jeanne’, laid back, and she was gone.”
The second story is about Claude. Claude was a good friend of mine, before I met him, Claude was a clown in a circus.
He had a pet goose that followed him everywhere, and tons of great stories.
One day he ended up in the hospital with bad food poisoning. I was there in the hospital with his wife when he was declared dead.
He laid on his hospital bed and we were given some time to spend with him, pray for him; when suddenly he sat upright and gave us a huge smile.
The same smile he had as a clown, as if he were telling us, “I am so happy!” and he laid back down and passed peacefully.
– Validity of Near-Death Experiences, 9:42, Fr. Spitzer
– He died and met God, and he wasn’t ready, the incredible near-death experience, 1:16:24, Fr. Rick Wendell
– I died, went to Heaven, and came back, 12:38, Dr Mary Neal
