After years he comes out of the coma "Jesus near my bed made me get up"

For years, Hilda Brittain has claimed that she and her husband Ralph "lived in the shadow of death".

As an aviator in the Pacific Theater during World War II, Ralph had a disease that damaged his brain and led to convulsions for years. He was given just over a decade to live.

Ralph went into a coma and recovered because of what Hilda describes as a miraculous healing.

In the early 70s, she and Ralph would have been heavily involved in the ministry, both in foreign countries and in Hickory.

At 96, Hilda continues her work in the ministry. He is scheduled to speak at a ministerial conference in Hickory later this month.

He also just finished editing "Have you ever seen a worried bird?" a book of her husband's teachings. The book will be available through Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

In the 70s, he also wrote his book on his testimony entitled "And There is More".

Brittain recently sat down to discuss some of the events in her life that have shaped her faith. The interview was edited for length and clarity.

Not knowing if her husband died or lived during the Second World War:

He was bitten by mosquitoes and had a high fever and damaged his brain. So he was fired from the Air Force after being hospitalized.

We thought he was dead. Printed newspaper (which was) dead. They forgive them, but they knew nothing better. Neither do we.

My first child was a child and it was a sad period until we found out ... he lived and that he would be discharged from the Air Force.

So they sent him home from San Francisco, across the Golden Gate Bridge on July 4th. At midnight he was under the bridge and called me to tell me he was home.

So for at least six weeks I think ... I didn't know if he was alive or dead because the Red Cross was so activated ... and they weren't as quick as they would have been.

So it was a real thrill for him to go home.

Seeing her husband come out of a coma in the early 60s:

So Dr. Davis called me when I was teaching high school at the time in the business department and told me that Ralph was in a coma ... and that he would send him to the VA in Duke where he could die.

So I had been prepared for the heart (and) for the head and everything else to expect him to die. So I said goodbye. He was unconscious.

The week passed and they didn't call me saying he was dead. I expected. I had been hardened by it.

So I came back on Friday.

See, the last time I saw Ralph he was unconscious and pale. Well, when I got around the corner, Ralph was sitting on the bed, smiling, pink, normal.

"I want to tell you something" (he said.) And I mean, you know I'm half shocked.

He said, "I heard footsteps in the room and I knew Jesus was coming."

And he said "I looked up and Jesus was standing by the door and Hilda was beautiful."

"And he looked at me and said, 'Ralph, I came to heal you and send you all over the world.'"

And he said he came up, stopped at the bottom of the bed ... put his hands on the parapet and looked out and said, "I'm calling you to preach my word all over the world."

And then he went around the bed, put his hands on him and healed him naturally and smiled at him.

He said, "He smiled at me and then walked through the window, he just disappeared."

And he said, "I asked them to let me go home and then I will study and we will go all over the world to preach the Gospel."

Well that's exactly what we did.

Billy Graham Crusade attended in 1958:

We met Billy Graham from the news about him and he was coming to Charlotte.

We worshiped the Lord. We talked to him but we had never been involved in anything so big before and we wanted to go.

You know, when ... you believe in something you want to be sure you really believe it and when Billy gave his invitation, we all got up ... and went to them and got saved.

And then they put us in class for a year. We took lessons for a whole year on the scriptures. They sent us brochures and we filled them.

In his first book:

I would say that the Lord impressed me to write this book ("And there is more") because we were giving our testimonies and this is full of testimonies.

It was just to tell people, “Hey, don't get stuck in the routine. Have ears to hear what the Lord is telling you. "