This is my first post on this forum. I wanted to share a recent experience and hopefully get some insight from Forum members. My father recently passed away after a short illness and in the weeks prior to his passing I had some unusual experiences. I’m not sure if they were dreams or something else but I would wake up in the morning thinking “What just happened” and with a feeling that something just wasn’t right. During one experience I recall I was sitting in with a group of individuals or elders who informed me of a decision which I didn’t want to accept. My initial reaction was “No… No… You can’t do this”. I think they tried to explain to me why it was happening but I just didn’t want to accept it. My relationship to these people was almost like student to teacher. I couldn’t see their faces and everything around them seemed shrouded in darkness. They had form but it was more of a silhouette. It was almost like my senses were being blocked.

In a different experience I was in a busy place with lots of people walking by and on the other side of the room I noticed a lady tracking me as I walked. She was tall, slim and wore what looked like black Western attire. She was very fair, had long black hair and sharp features and showed no emotion on her face. There was something unusual about her eyes. On seeing her I felt she represented something “bad”. I think in my core being I knew who she was or what she represented and I recall thinking “Why are you here”. I did not like her presence. She said nothing to me but simply tacked me as I walked.

Then one afternoon, a few weeks later, I got a call from my mum in the UK telling me my father was in hospital as his kidney function has suddenly deteriorated – My father had chronic kidney disease and was under the care of the renal unit at a local hospital. Over the space of a few weeks he had begun to lose his appetite and had difficulty breathing. Fluid began building up in his legs and this was the indication to my mum that something serious was wrong with his health. He was taken to A&E and the Dr told him that his kidney function was less than 10% and that he was looking at dialysis three times a week. He took all of this in his stride. He was in hospital for week or so and every time I spoke to my mum she would say he is OK and improving. I spoke to my father a number of times and he always seemed in good spirits. He was improving slowly and one afternoon I spoke to my mum and she said my father was going to be discharged from hospital that afternoon and that my brother was going to take her to the hospital to pick him up. I got up the next morning to a number of missed calls on my mobile and got alarmed. I spoke to my brother and he told me just as they were about to leave the hospital my father had what the Dr’s described as a “cardiac event”. It turns out it was a mild heart attack. My brother said that if this had happened in the car on the way home the outcome could have been very different. I was able to get on a flight to the UK that evening. I got into the UK the following morning and spent the day at the hospital with my father. Cognitively he was 100% but his speech was slightly slurred. He was in good spirits and perked up that day and his strength seemed to return. He ate his lunch and had his tea by himself and we left the hospital in the evening feeling upbeat thinking he had turned the corner. The next morning I dropped my uncle off at the hospital. My father was resting so I said to him I’ll be back in the afternoon with mum. I got a call from my uncle around 10 am and I could tell from his voice that he was upbeat. He said that my father was sitting up and had eaten his breakfast and they had been chatting away. I felt positive. Mum made lunch for my father and we were just about to leave for the hospital around 1 pm when my uncle called again. My mum answered the phone and my uncle told her that we should get to the hospital quickly as the crash team were around my father. We set of to the hospital and as we turned out of our road approached a crossroads. The first car to pass us was a hearse. We both saw it but didn’t want to say anything. We got to the hospital and the Dr who was looking after my father saw us at the door to the ward and approached us. He wanted to speak to me but I brushed his hand away and asked him how my father was. He shook his head and said that my father’s heart had stopped and that they were unable to revive him. We went to the room where he was and he looked at peace and without a care in the world. I was in shock... I didn’t know what to do. The person who had been there for me all my life was suddenly gone. He was right there in front of me but at the same time he wasn’t.

In the days following my father’s passing I felt a cloud over me. I didn’t want to speak to anyone. In my heart I knew it was his time but I was angry that he had gone. Why did he have to go now? I started thinking about the experiences I had had a few weeks prior to his passing and thought could I have done anything? But then I looked to the teachings of my faith and understood that the time of our birth and death is preordained.

Later that week my father’s eldest brother came around and told me that on the morning of my father’s passing while he and my aunt were having breakfast she suddenly started crying and wouldn’t stop. He asked her a number of times what was wrong but she wouldn’t say anything. A day or so later she told him that my grandfather had come to her in a dream the night before my father passed - My grandfather passed away in 1990. In her dream she was sleeping and my grandfather told her to wake up. She was startled and he told her to get up and pray. He asked her about the family and how everyone was. She told him that my father was unwell and he said I’ve come to see him.

My grandfather was a very spiritual person and he has visited me on a number of occasions to give me guidance. Hearing that he had come to see my father and guide him gave me a lot of comfort. My grandfather also came to visit another one of my aunts the week of my father’s passing.

Can anyone shed any light on who the elders were that communicated with me? How was it that I was able to communicate with them? Was it an accident or were they preparing me for the inevitable? Who was the lady in black?