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Dr J C Barker  MD, MRCP, DPM – Scared to Death – An examination of fear, its cause and effects

A woman wrote to me that in the spring of 1920, while busy with her household duties, she had a vision "like a flash of lightning of her little son, aged nine, in a coffin".

She had the same experience several weeks later and on both occasions was conscious of the large size of the coffin. She was horrified and did her utmost to banish the thought from her mind but was quite unable to do so.

While on holiday in Llandudno during July she went to church and in the sermon the clergyman said, "God sometimes inflicts almost unbearable pain to fulfil His plans."

She felt the message was for her and also felt sick as if a knife thrust had passed through her heart. Later, one morning on the beach, her agony was so great that she could have screamed out in terror but she attempted to reassure herself by saying aloud,

"Nothing has-happened yet, enjoy your life-while things are still all right."

Early in August she went against her will to the Swallow Falls near Betwys-y-Coed and climbed one of the smaller mountains with her husband and small son. All the time she was panic-stricken and kept gripping her- son's coat. Her husband remonstrated with her and said her nerves were getting the better of her.

On August 24th, while returning from school, a schoolmate pushed her son backwards off the pavement into the path of a car. 

He died six hours later.  

On August 27th his body came home from the hospital in its coffin, on his tenth birthday. Going into the room where the coffin lay, she noticed that it was much taller than she thought would have been necessary. Her story was fully corroborated by her husband.