My Visit From Beyond

Late June brought a stifling night in our apartment building. For some reason I tossed and turned, sensing an unknown danger about to transpire. Having checked the halls of our quiet building, I was able to finally fall into a fitful sleep. It’s probably just my imagination running wild, was my last conscious thought.
Suddenly I woke to the sound of my mother’s voice urging me to dress and then leave the building. Half-awake, my husband didn’t seem to make much sense of it all, but he went along with me, complete with cats in tow, and we drove to the park. It was much cooler there, with a breeze coming up from the river. Several of the locals use the park at night to escape the sweltering heat of their apartment buildings, too.
We’d been there perhaps an hour or two when suddenly we heard sirens coming from all directions and a red glow in the dark night was visible to us from the river! It was our twenty-seven-unit apartment building going up in flames with the entire third floor burning wildly out of control! Tenants were jumping from the second- and third-floor windows, many badly burned, only to die plummeting from their burning apartments. Everything we owned went up in smoke that night, and there were four deaths as a result. Thank God, we were out of there, hours before the fire began! It’s because of my mother’s voice pleading with me to get up and just go. Three little cats are alive today, also, because of her spirit. That was a very hot and swift-moving fire!
I call this incident my visit from beyond, as no one but my mother had any idea that this fire would begin. She led us, I believe, out of that building before catastrophe struck. Because of her, five lives were saved—my husband’s and mine, as well as the lives of three little cats.
Because of Mom’s guidance and spirit, we did not die. Readjustment was hard, as we lost everything that night, but thanks to God and my mother, we can get on with our lives.