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Death and its Mystery: After Death – Camille Flammarion

Ben-Danoun-Kouba, Algiers, July 20, 1899.

 My husband, one of the best and most intelligent men who ever lived, had promised me that if he departed this life before I did he would certainly come and give me some positive sign as to his life beyond the grave, if it were possible.

While in perfect health he had a sunstroke, which carried him off in a few days. He died on October 10, 1898.

We were living in the country, in the house where we now are. The family consisted of my husband, myself, and my daughter, a very young widow, with three little children (boys), two years and a half, three, and five years old. In the course of the cruel days which ended in my husband's death, friends took charge of the children and took them away, and the fact that their grandfather had died was concealed from them. Guy, the youngest of the three, was at the table with our friends on the day of the burial, toward noon, when suddenly he stood up in his chair and said:

 “There's grandpa, there in the window. Look!”

He wished to leave the table and go toward the window. He was two years and six months old; not only did he not know of his grandfather's death, but he had no conception of death. The next morning I heard him, in the room adjoining mine, making happy sounds; jumping, laughing, calling: “Grandpapa! Grandpapa!" Annoyed, I went out to make him stop. But he kept on clapping his hands and laughing, and he said to me: “Look how pretty grandfather is! He's all white and he's making a light."

 My daughter-in-law and the servants who had come, brought by the noise, were astonished. They asked him if he really saw his grandfather. The child seemed not to understand that we did not see him ”But there he is! He's there!" he cried, and lifted his eyes to about the height at which a man's face would have been. Then, after a moment, he looked up and. said, “Why, he's gone away!"

Eight months later, Guy, who was then three years and two months old, saw the same apparition for the third time. My husband had often told me of a beautiful spot, near La Motte-les-Bains in the Alps of Dauphine, and he wished very much to take me there. In the month of June following his death l went to spend the summer in La Motte, with my daughter, her three children, and their nurse. In memory of my husband, I wished to visit the spot which had pleased him so, and one morning we all went there together. It is, indeed, an ideal mountain haunt, delightfully wooded, full of flowers, strawberries, and wild raspberries.

Raymond, the eldest of the children, began to pick strawberries for his mother. Etienne brought me raspberries. Then little Guy said to me, “I'm, picking flowers for grandpapa." Raymond cried, “How can you give them to him, since he's dead !"

Guy seemed very much surprised, and answered, “Why, he's there; I 'm giving him my hand." After some moments he said sadly, “He's not there any longer; he’s gone." I can vouch, dear Master, for the perfect exactitude of this account. The three children were too young to remember the incident but they made an unforgettable impression on my daughter, the nurse, and me.

ANNE E. CARRIERE

Letter 750