During her last weeks, Laura started to talk about how she knew she would soon see her father, grandmother and her beloved cat ‘Puddy’ again. She had never talked about the afterlife before and I was surprised and pleased she was so filled with excitement about what would happen. For my part, I’ve come to suspect that we are reincarnated.  We take life to grow our inner most being and we meet a lot of the same souls over and over again. I felt from the first moment I saw Laura’s photo online that she was someone I ‘knew’ in a way I couldn’t explain. But I’d never given much thought to what happens when we die.

Now I am looking for clues to what it is like on the ‘other side’ and have been reading up on Near Death Experiences (NDEs). Apparently these are no longer considered weird hallucination of the dying brain, but rather real spiritual experiences according to scientists such as Dr James Whinnery of the National Warfare Institute (who studies near death experiences in US air pilots). In Raymond Moody classic book Life After Life, he found most people who died and returned to life had similar stories. They reported traveling through a tunnel of light, feeling a great sense of peace, joy and happiness and being greeted ‘on the other side’ by deceased family and friends (unfortunately I don’t think anyone mentioned being greeted by a pet). When I die, I can’t think of anything nicer than having Laura enfold me in her arms. Just seeing her again will soothe my heart and spirit. And we will have a lot of snuggling to catch up on..