On Sun, 2014-04-06 at 08:27 -0400, John Sundman wrote: > Remember, I had seen my grandfather alive and apparently well only 2 > weeks earlier. > > But I stopped, and thought, and, it seems, I knew. "No", I said. "I > don't think he is." > > Two weeks later I received a letter from my father informing me of > Pop's death. It was at the day and hour that the mechanic in Senegal > fixed the car with the clogged fuel line.
Great story. There are some things odd about life and consciousness that cannot be explained. Two things I cannot explain occurred as follows. My father was ailing and I knew we were approaching the end. One day I was driving back from work on a single lane road and a bus appeared opposite me and passed by - and just as it did some kids darted across the road behind the bus. I jammed the brake and my car screeched to a halt - just touching the last kid and pushing him with a soft thud that shocked him but did not knock him down. I got out angrily and gave the kids a dressing down,thanking my lucky stars. My father died two days later - it was almost as if some force had saved a life that was to be saved and taken one whose time had come. This incident did not make much of an impression on me till many years later when my mother was approaching her end. Once again I found myself on the road, driving fairly slowly. I overtook a stationary bus and out a man stepped right in front of my car. I jammed the brakes - stopping within a centimeter of the man. I shouted at him and moved on. My mother died two days later. It was really weird. Once again - a human had come close to death in front of my car, saved only by providence - but as a sort of signal that someone close to me had to move on. For years I have had premonitions about operations that are going to end up being exceptionally difficult, manifesting as a deep anxiety that has no connection with the condition of the patient. One more incident that I put down to a mystical experience was an extremely sick patient, too ill for an operation whom we were trying to save without operation. The treatment was not working and finally one evening I spoke to all the concerned people and told them that the only hope of saving him would be to operate but that could kill him - and that I would operate the next morning if things were no better. On the way to hospital I was driving behind a disabled man on a special three wheel vehicle when an autorickshaw cut across, hit the vehicle, toppling the man and then shot away. I found myself in a position to overtake and block the auto from escaping - caught the driver and brought him to the scene of the accident a few dozen meters behind. The disabled man was not seriously injured - a small crowd collected and we ensured that the autorickshaw driver took responsibility for his act. I went to hospital, my premonition about a bad day ahead was gone. The patient was in the operating theater waiting for me to take a final call - and I discovered that magically, there had been a marked improvement overnight. I called off the operation and persisted with the non operative treatment. The man got better and went home. I tend to feel that there were some strange inexplicable forces at play on that day. shiv
