Hello, my name is Heather and I am from Southern New Jersey. The experience that I would like to share happened twenty-five years ago, when I was 13 years old. I was in Missouri visiting four cousins and an aunt and uncle, who had moved from New Jersey two years prior. I spent a month with them during my summer break from school. After a couple of weeks of being back home in New Jersey, we received a devastating phone call from our family in Missouri. My cousin Joshua, also 13, passed away in an accident on a dirt road near the family's home.

Days later various family members from the East Coast made their way out to Missouri to attend Joshua's funeral. Most of the visiting family members had stayed at other places in the area, while my immediate family and I stayed at our relative's home. I slept in Joshua's room. 

The night before the funeral it had been getting late so I went to lie down while the others stayed up talking. I went to Joshua's room, got into bed and closed my eyes. What happened next is something I will never forget. As soon as my eyes had closed I saw nothing but white light. After a few moments the light started to slowly surround and embrace me. I felt as though I was being comforted and blanketed in pure love. I opened my eyes and was stunned at what I had just experienced. As I got up to walk out of the room I felt a tear of joy roll down my face, which surprised me. The tear had reinforced the experience for me and I was so happy. I can say with certainty that I was not asleep during this experience, which seemed to only have lasted for a few seconds. When I had left the bedroom immediately afterwards everyone was still up talking and I concluded that only a couple of minutes had passed since I first left them.

The experience had left me in a state of shock and I didn't tell anyone about it at the time. I simply did not know what exactly had happened or how to describe it. I had immediately pushed the event to the back of my mind and did not think about it again until years later. I recalled the event while talking to someone about an extraordinary experience that she had had, although at that time I still did not understand exactly what I had experienced. In fact, it was not until I watched a particular episode of the TV show Unsolved Mysteries that I had come to understand. The show had featured a man who had a near death experience, and some of the things that he described I could relate to from my own experience.

I had started listening to and reading about other NDEs and heard people describe the same white light that I saw and felt; the same love that enveloped me while in the presence of the light. I hear many describe this light as a'being of light,' which they often say is full of love and understanding.

Just last year I told Joshua's mom about my experience. Aunt Charlene was silent for a moment and then told me that after Joshua had passed away she was having a really hard time with losing him. She asked Joshua to give her a sign that would let her know that he was still close by. 

One night Aunt Charlene was driving on the dirt road where Joshua's accident had occurred. She said it was dark out and, the location being a back country road, there weren't many lights. Over the spot where Joshua had died she saw a hovering white light. It seems as though Joshua was letting her know that he was with her.  Aunt Charlene also mentioned that some of the neighbors told her that they had seen a white light above their farm house for a period of time following Joshua's passing.