Observations placeholder
He picked up my nephew's bike and said, 'That's it, I'm off'
Identifier
021354
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
The Art of Dying – Drs Peter and Elizabeth Fenwick
In October 1987 Terry Woods was serving in the Royal Navy as A submariner on board HMS revenge and had sailed for an eight-week patrol.
Two days after diving I was asleep in bed and had a very real dream that my grandfather had 'died'. The dream was very strange in that all of our family was waiting in the place where our grandparents had died and that I was the last one to arrive.
When I arrived and my grandfather saw that we were all there, he picked up my nephew's bike and said, 'That's it, I'm off' and pedalled off over a walkway and disappeared. I woke up the next morning and told my best friend, that 'I had, a really weird dream that my granddad had died'. My friend reassured me that it was only a dream and not to worry.
While on patrol, submariners are never told of any bad news
This was a problem for the Royal Navy as our next-of-kin were only allowed 40 words a week to inform us of any news (family-grams) - the Navy duly vetted such messages. My mother insisted that my wife put in the family-gram that she was 'sorry about Grandad'. On receipt of my wife's message, the Royal Navy with held all family-grams for me for three weeks- so I knew something was wrong! The Captain then decided to tell me that the reason for my messages being withheld was because my paternal grandfather had passed away, at approximately 3 a.m. on 18 October 1987.
I had no idea that he had been ill. At the time of his death I was fast asleep 200 feet under the Atlantic Ocean. Very spooky . . .