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Going Home – Colm Keane
Sarah from County Donegal

I was coming out of the operation for a hysterectomy in the local hospital. I was in hospital for a long time but I was only in for a long time because my bladder wouldn’t work afterwards, otherwise it was a very ordinary procedure, not terribly long, relatively routine.

After the operation, I was being revived by the nurses. They were trying to bring me around but I was up on a height, up on a different plane. I was up just about as high as a room, maybe eight feet or so above them. I could see the hospital bed below and I could see myself lying on it. I could make myself out clearly. I knew it was me yet I was up above. I could see that the white of the sheets was a kind of a grey compared to the white I could see up where I was. I could also see two nurses trying to waken me up. They had their uniforms on them and they were giving me pats on the face. I could see them plainly. I could see what they were doing to me but I couldn’t feel it. I was separate from myself.

Three people were coming towards me. They were very old and in human form. They were straight and tall and they all wore thin, long, white, gleaming garments. They had white, pale skin with very long, white, gleaming hair. Everything was very white on them. They were quiet and serene. They weren't recognisable to me and I couldn't tell what sex they were. Yet they had three different faces. I didn't know them and I couldn't say that they were anybody in particular. They definitely weren't my grand-parents because I knew them - unless this was the body they have in the next world. The background that they were coming from was something like a wood area, with trees or something of that nature. There was something like greenery behind them. There were no houses, just a kind of a soft background. Their arms weren't outstretched but I knew for a fact that their purpose was to come for me.

I was trying to get to them before the nurses got me wakened. I could see the nurses down below, hitting me and trying to get me to come around. I knew that if they got me wakened I wouldn't get to these people. I was aware of that. I was so anxious to go to them and I didn't want to come back. I wanted to go to them as if they were long-lost relatives or ancestors or friends or something. It was an overwhelming desire. I definitely felt a great empathy with them. I felt they were my kindred. I felt akin to them, if there is such a thing. It was an extraordinary feeling.

Then I wakened up and the nurses were saying, 'Oh! We had bother getting you awake, bringing you around.' I was kind of annoyed and said, 'But I didn't want to come back!' I wanted to go to this fabulous place where there was such a great feeling. I wanted to get to these people. It was like when you waken from a dream. When you waken from it, it's gone and you can't get it back again but you'd love to. Like, my husband is dead and sometimes I would dream about him and I would like to get it back again. But you can't.

That was how I came out of the operation. It was a lovely experience and I kind of felt that if I had died then it would be a lovely thing. I am not scared of death since. I believe there’s another world. And I feel that maybe that's what it’s going to be like when I pass away.

I haven't really given what happened much thought in the last years. It's not the sort of thing that comes up in conversation very often. But if anybody is talking about after-death experiences, I will always say 'oh, I had one of them!’