News: "after a cardiac arrest I was in Heaven, I'll tell you how it is"

One day in September, Charlotte Holmes watched from above as a dozen medical personnel surrounded her hospital bed and fought heroically to bring her back from the dead. A staff member knelt astride her on the bed, delivering chest compressions while others administered drugs, adjusted monitors, and called readings. In the corner of the room, Charlotte saw her husband Danny watching, alone and frightened.

Then, he sniffed the most wonderfully intoxicating fragrance he had ever smelled. And with that, heaven opened before her. Charlotte, who lived with Danny in Mammoth for 48 years, had been hospitalized three days earlier at Cox South Hospital in Springfield after going for a routine checkup with her cardiologist and had been sent directly to the hospital when her blood pressure it had increased by 234/134.

"I've always had problems with my blood pressure, and I've been to the hospital two or three times before when they put me on IV therapy to bring it down," he said. “That time, in September, I was there for three days and I was hooked to all the heart rate monitors. They had just taken a sponge bath in my bed and were wearing a clean hospital gown when it happened. I don't remember anything of that moment, but Danny said I had just fallen and one of the nurses said, "Oh my God. He's not breathing. ""

Danny later told her that her eyes were wide and she seemed to be staring. The nurse ran out of the room and called a code, leading a crowd of medical staff rushing into the room. One got up on the bed and started chest compressions.

"I thought I wasn't going to take you home," Danny told her later.

That was the time, said Charlotte, when "I went out over my body. I was looking down on everything. I saw them working on me on the bed. I could see Danny standing in the corner. "

And then came the wonderful fragrance.

“The most beautiful and wonderful smell, like nothing I've ever felt before. I am a floral person; I love flowers and there were these flowers that had this fragrance that you can't even imagine, "he said.

The flowers were part of a scene that suddenly unfolded before he did. "God took me to a place beyond anything I ever imagined," he said. “I opened my eyes and was amazed. There were waterfalls, inlets, hills, wonderful landscapes. And there was the best music, like angels singing and people singing with them, so relaxing. Grass, trees and flowers swayed over time with music. "

Then he saw the angels. “There were several angels, but these were huge, and their wings were iridescent. They would take a wing and fan it, and I could feel the wind on my face from the wings of the angels, "he said.

“You know, we've all imagined what heaven will be like. But this ... this was a million times more than anything I could have imagined, "said Charlotte. "I was flabbergasted."

Then he saw "the golden doors, and beyond them, standing smiling and greeting me, there were my mom, dad and sister."

Charlotte's mother, Mabel Willbanks, was 56 when she died of a heart attack. Charlotte's sister, Wanda Carter, was 60 when she also had a heart attack and died in her sleep. Her father, Hershel Willbanks, had lived in his 80s but then died "a very sad death" from lung problems, he said.

But there they were, they were smiling at her just beyond the golden doors, and they seemed happy and healthy. “They had no glasses and seemed to be 40 years old. They were so excited to see me, ”said Charlotte.

There was also her cousin Darrell Willbanks, who had been like a brother to her. Darrell had lost a leg before he died of heart problems. But here he is, standing on two good legs and happily greeting her.

A blinding light that filtered from behind his loved ones and the huge crowd of people standing with them. Charlotte is sure that the light was God.

He turned his head to save his eyes - the light was so intense - when something else caught his attention. He was a boy, a boy. "It was there in front of my mom and dad," he said.

For a moment, Charlotte was confused. Whose was that boy? she wondered. But as soon as the question came to mind, she heard God answer.

It was she and Danny's son, the baby who had aborted nearly 40 years ago when she was five and a half months pregnant.

“So, they didn't let you keep the baby or bury it when you had an abortion for so long. They simply supported him and said, "He's a kid." And that was all. It was finished. I went through a long and deep depression after that abortion, wishing I could hold him back, "he said.

Seeing her little son standing with her parents, she said, “I couldn't wait to keep him. I had lost it. "

It was all so wonderful, paradise was. And beyond the golden doors, he heard God say, "Welcome home."

“But then, I turned my head away from that intense light again and looked over my shoulder. And there were Danny and Chrystal and Brody and Shai, ”she said referring to her and Danny Chrystal Meek's daughter and her adult children Brody and Shai. “They were crying and it broke my heart. We know that in heaven there is no pain, but I had not gone through the doors. I wasn't there yet. I thought about how I wanted to see Shai get married and Brody get married to make sure they were fine. "

At that moment she heard God tell her she had a choice. “You can stay home or you can go back. But if you go back, you have to tell your story. You have to explain what you've seen and say my message, and that message is that I'm coming early for my church, my bride, ”said Charlotte.

At the time, while Danny watched the rescuers continue the chest compressions, he heard one of them ask, "Paddles?" apparently referred to an electro-shock defibrilator.

He heard the manager say no and instead order some kind of shot. "And then he said that a guy comes running in, and they give me the chance to shoot, and on the monitors he could see that my blood pressure was going down," said Charlotte.

And then, Danny told her later, she saw one of Charlotte's eyes blink, "and I knew you would come back to me."

Charlotte had been dead for 11 minutes.

When he arrived, he started to cry. Danny asked, "Mom, are you hurting yourself?"

Charlotte shook her head no. And then he asked, "Did you smell those flowers?"

Danny had sent a message to Chrystal the moment Charlotte had stopped breathing, and Chrystal had gathered her children and they had all rushed to Springfield, coming to Charlotte's side just as she was being brought into intensive care.

When she saw Chrystal coming towards her, the first thing Charlotte said to her was, "Did you smell the flowers?"

Chrystal turned to his father and said, "Huh?"

Danny shrugged. "I don't know," he said. "He keeps saying it smelled like flowers."

Charlotte was in the hospital a couple of weeks and during that time “I couldn't stop talking about it. I have this burning in my life and in my soul. I have to see something so extraordinary and I just have to tell people. Heaven is a million times better than you can imagine. I stop people in the grocery store. I even stopped my postman and told him. I'm not shy. I want to share this story where I can. "

When she was in heaven, she felt that God was telling her that when she returned, she would see angels. “And just in the last month, I started seeing them. I can see guardian angels behind their backs, "he said.

Charlotte has always been a devoted Christian. She and Danny are part of the band that provides music for Mammoth Assembly of God. “But now, more than anything else, my favorite thing to do is pray with people. Danny even built me ​​a closet for prayer. You know if he wakes up at 3 in the morning and I'm leaving, that's where I am. It is so important to me, and in doing this, I have heard many other people with their testimony. "

Charlotte told her story in several churches and meetings of other groups in the area.

“I just can't stop talking about it. And there is much more to the story. I don't want people to think I'm crazy - well, I don't care if they think I'm crazy. I know what the Lord has shown me and I can't stop saying how wonderful and merciful God is, "he said.