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The Art of Dying – Drs Peter and Elizabeth Fenwick

J. A. Kirton describes a dream she had the night her mother died. Although her mother had been taken into hospital with a suspected minor heart attack, there was no reason to think she was going to die.

The night after she was taken in, I was dreaming, for some reason, that I was visiting a garden centre with my sister. In the dream I became suddenly aware of a feeling that something was about to happen, that something I could in no way explain was rushing towards me. In the dream, I said to my sister, 'l have to go now, or I'm going to miss it.' Though I had no idea what the 'it' was.

 I awoke then to find that the feeling that something, some entity was rushing, at the speed of light, to be with me. It was as though whatever it was that I was sensing came hurtling through the bedroom wall, and although I could see nothing, I was then aware that whatever this unknown phenomenon was, it was now hovering above me. I could not see anything, but the feeling of the presence, and the fact that it was my mother, was so strong, I remember it clearly today, eight years after the event. She then moved down towards me, and I distinctly felt her kiss the top of my head, - something she had always done after visiting me as she said goodbye. Then she was gone. I knew without a doubt that the presence had been my mother, and that she had died. This seemed very odd, as I still had no expectation of her imminent death, and, feeling silly for having such thoughts, I said nothing to anyone in the morning.

At 8 a.m. the telephone rang. It was my father. I said, to him, 'You don't have to tell me. I know what you’re ringing for.'

She had died, in the night of a sudden and, massive stroke. To visit me in the way she did, to be able to say goodbye in her normal fashion, I feel the fact that the spirit does leave the body at the time of death to be the only explanation.