Chapter 3, "An Experience of My Own", section "A deadly prognosis and strange events":
"We all held hands around the bed - my two sisters, their husbands, and Cheryl and I - and waited for the inevitable moment of death.
"And as we waited, it happened to us: a shared death experience. As we held hands around the bed, the room seemed to change shape and four of the six of us felt as though we were being lifted off the ground. I had the feeling that the room had turned into the shape of an hourglass. I felt a strong pull, like a riptide that was pulling me out to sea, only the pull was upward.
"'Look,' said my sister, pointing to a spot at the end of the bed. 'Dad's here! He's come back to get her!'
"Everyone there reported later that the light in the room changed to a soft and fuzzy texture. It was like looking at light in a swimming pool at night.
"As all of this took place, there was great joy in the room. We all knew something truly incredible had happened to all of us as our mother died. It was as though the fabric of the universe had torn and for just a moment we felt the energy of that place called heaven.
"After the funeral we spent a few more days in Macon with my family, taking care of the loose ends that are always left after a death. It was during this period of time that we all began to compare our experiences at Mom's bedside and realized how extraordinary they had been. We were all convinced by our individual experiences that we had each shared Mom's death in a unique, spiritual way. My brother-in-law, the Reverend Rick Lanford, a Methodist minister, summed it up best when he said, 'I felt like I left my physical body and went into another plane with her. It was like nothing that had ever happened to me.'
"I agreed completely with Rick. We all did. What should have been one of life's least happy moments was suddenly cause for elation. We had gone partway to heaven with our mother. We had personally seen her off to heaven!"
