Observations placeholder

Ernesto Bozzano - Psychic phenomena at the moment of death [110 cases suggesting survival after death]

First category - Cases in which the apparitions of the deceased are perceived solely by the dying person, and relate to persons whose death he knew.

9th case. - The next episode, from the Journal of The S.A.P.R. (1918, p. 623), was communicated to Professor Hyslop by Dr. E. H. Pratt:

My sister Hattie was struck by a malignant diphtheria attack when she was at school in Caroll Seminary.  She was immediately transported home to be entrusted to the care of our father,  who unfortunately did not manage to save her. After a few days of extreme suffering, this beautiful soul flew to the other side, which seems so dark and impenetrable, in its immeasurable immensity. The episode that happened on her deathbed was so wonderful, so realistic and so impressive, that even though I was only ten years old, I keep the panoramic scene of the event if it was yesterday.

Her bed was in the middle of the room and my mother, my father, the other sister and some friends were around, anxiously watching the dying woman's dear face, where the light of life was slowly fading away and the pallor of death was increasing. Poor Hattie was leaving slowly, in conditions of perfect calm and apparently without suffering.

Although her throat was clogged with diphtheritic membranes so as to make her voice very weak, her mind seemed sharper and more rational than ever. She knew she was about to die, and confided to her mother her last disposition of the small personal properties to be distributed to her friends as a souvenir, when suddenly, she looked up at the ceiling, towards the farthest corner of the room and watched with keen attention, as if listening to someone speak.

Then she nodded a little gesture of assent and said, "Yes, grandma, I come, I come, wait a moment, I beg you”.

My father asked, "Hattie, do you see your grandmother?”

She seemed surprised at this question and quickly replied: "But, Father, do not you see her? She is here waiting for me”.

Saying that, she pointed to the corner where she had looked. Then, turning back to her mother, she finished dictating her provisions about the little treasures to distribute to friends. After that, she turned again, listening, to her grandmother, who apparently invited her to come without delay, and gave all the farewells. Her voice was very weak, but the look, which she turned successively towards each one of us, was full of intelligence and life. Finally she turned one last time to the corner of the room and, with a voice barely intelligible, she said,

"Now I'm ready, Grandma”. And, looking always in this direction, without struggle and without suffering, she died.

Her grandmother had died a few years before, and a great mutual affection tied them alive to each other. The episode of recognition by Hattie had been so realistic in all its details, that it does not seem possible to explain it otherwise than by admitting the actual presence of the grandmother in a form identical to the one she had when alive. In short, the episode was authentic, indisputable, real. Signed: Dr. E. Pratt.