[slowsnake]

I was booked in for major posterior cervical spine surgery,it was 15th July 1993,my best mate Eddie was also my boss,he was younger than me but I run his medium size metal fabrication business with/for him.

I was 40 years old and Eddie was 33 years,he was a good and kindhearted fellow,he was married with one child,a girl named Denniel,and two other kiddies from his first wife.
He was a known womaniser,and liked a drink,a big drink.
We all liked a drink after work but he was a hard liqour drinker,bourbon was his drink,double and triple shots!

I was woken at 2 am in my hospital bed on the Sunday morning, I had my operation on Friday morning and it was 10 days recovery, a ward nurse give me the phone,and another mate said Ed had been killed a few hours earlier,I thought it was a dream and went back to sleep.
Next morning they brought a phone to my bed and I made a call to a mate,he just said " Ed's gone mate",I asked him how ( but I already knew ),car accident drunk as a skunk!
I asked where/anyone else,no just Eddie,out at Sofala he was on a fishing/hunting trip.

I am giving you some history because of what happened the night of his funeral.
I asked my neurosurgeon if I could sign out early,he didn't like it but Ed was my best mate,and I knew none of his so called other mates would get up and say anything for him,and,I promised the doctor I would not carry his coffin.
So the funeral was big mainly Polish,nearly 400 plus attended and I was the only one who stood up to deliver his eulogy.

After the cemetery we all lobbed back to his house and had about a 2,500 dollar wake,I was very upset and unwell from the weeks events and got a lift home.
As soon as I got in I turned on the heater,grabbed a bottle of rum and just layed on my bed,my neck was killing me,as it should,I was still supposed to be in hospital.

I was looking at a few photo's and one of him and his dog made me smile.
I must of dozed off to sleep with the photo clutched to my chest,I remember cussing about him and his bloody drinking and just drifted off,right out of my body,I just floated away,very very fast,I was just looking around as stars and planets passed by,again I was pure consciousness, or I like to say "a set of eyeballs",I ended up somewhere in space,I just sort of knew where I was in the universe,our universe.

Next thing I know I am on dirt,red dirt like we have in Australia,I was getting nothing mental or audible,it was quiet and very starry,I was on like a dirt island in space,it was like being in a caravan park,you call em trailer parks,but the Aussie ones have brick ablution blocks,but there were no vans just buildings,it was very gloomy,bordering on unpleasant, I was thinking " what am I doing here" as in purpose!

Then I looked toward a building and my dead mate Eddie was walking toward me,to say I was in shock was an enormous understatement, I had just delivered his eulogy and he was standing not three feet away,we were communicating telepathically.
He was in the same clothes we normally wore,denim jeans,hard yakka work shirt and steel cap boots,his demeanour was different, he used to be the life of the party,he worked hard like me but he liked another lifestyle,a different type of scene,womanising,too much drugs and way too much alcohol.

When he had his accident he end over ended a 4X4,he was killed instantly,they found him on a back road used early am and late afternoons,his German Shepherd dog was laying on him trying to keep him warm…
I asked him what happened, he said his accelerator jammed and he went down a ditch.
I said where are we he just said " I have to stay here for awhile"
Then another voice said this is purgatory, telepathically that is,the same voice said he cannot continue further,he has to stay and recover,but I throught it meant "get purified"

Eddie said," I have to go now" like he had no will of his own,I said alright mate!
Then I woke up,it was 5am and I still had the photo on my heart,I was smiling,I went to get up and I just thought geez my bloody necks sore,must of slept the wrong way.

Never been back to that place,but a little different than normal leave your body stuff!

Kind Regards Billy.