“I said please tell me what’s wrong.”

I was in San Francisco visiting my brother when I had a most unusual experience.

I was driving over the Golden Gate Bridge when an overwhelming thought came over me.  I felt I had to call my husband back home in Iowa.  I didn’t know why, but I had this feeling in my gut that something was wrong and needed my attention.

We have a farm and love to work the fields.  The land has been in my husband’s family for three generations and neither one of us could ever live anywhere else.  Our kids are grown and living elsewhere, but we’re never going to leave.

I reached for my cell phone but I couldn’t get reception; also, it appeared the battery was low.  I was getting a bit frantic because traffic was moving very, very slow and I knew I had to get in touch with Lawrence, and quick.

Maybe a half hour passed when finally I could get reception.  I dialed home and could barely hear what Lawrence was saying.  He was asking where I was because he had been trying to reach me.  I said please tell me what’s wrong.

He said my mother had suffered a setback (she is old and frail) and for me to call her as soon as possible.  When I asked what time it occurred, he told me, and I wasn’t the least bit taken aback when I learned it was the same moment my mother had taken ill.

My mother and I have drawn closer as the years have gone by.  She wasn’t a particularly warm person and, frankly, was a so-so mother, but as time passed we grew to love each other.  Now I feel as if we’re soul mates and I can feel her hurt from time to time.

This was definitely one of those times.

V. Wolford
Nashville, TN

“He replied that he could feel her gasping for breath.”

In everyone’s life comes good and bad.  I want to relay an incident in which both things happened simultaneously.

It was the end of November, and the weather was starting to turn.  My kids and I were nestled in front of the fireplace and it was one of those warm, comfortable moments.

My husband Harv was working late at the office and he had called earlier to tell me he was bringing home a surprise for the children.  We were all excited because the kids were doing well in school and this was their reward.  Harv was great with the kids, building up their self-esteem while keeping them grounded.  I loved him so.

Well, a little while later, Harv walked in the door.  And although the kids rushed up to him and literally grabbed the two packages he held out for them, I knew something was amiss.

After the kids tore off the wrappings and hugged their dad for the nice video games, he took my hand and led me into the bedroom.  When he sat on the edge of the bed and held his head in his hands, I knew something was terribly wrong.

He said he was afraid to call his mother, that he knew something bad was going to come of it.  I sat beside him and asked him why, and he replied that he could feel her gasping for breath.

I immediately picked up the phone and called her.  She answered and I felt so relieved.  And when I asked her if she felt OK, she said she was fine but that in the afternoon she had driven a close friend to the hospital.

I asked what was wrong with her and was told the poor woman was hyperventilating and couldn’t catch her breath.

Fortunately, the woman recovered and nothing serious happened.  But my husband’s premonition was pretty close to being on target.  Fortunately, nothing bad came of it.

R. Thornsley
Des Moines, Iowa