An Eternity in a Moment

by K Carothers

  I scheduled the appointment in February of 2017 and had a couple of weeks to wait before the appointment day. In the meantime, my maternal grandfather became ill. He was one of the few positive role models I had growing up (along with my grandmother and several teachers), but he’d been suffering from advanced Alzheimer’s disease for years and had long since forgotten who anyone was, though he’d otherwise been well at the time I made the appointment. But a week later he developed pneumonia and ended up dying early in the morning on the day I was scheduled to see the medium. Of course, I know what the skeptics will say—it was just another coincidence (such an easy, meaningless word to use).

  I doubted it was a coincidence, though, and went to see the medium that day. She told me the blue orb was a guardian angel and thought it was a female. But she didn’t have anything more to add at first, and we started talking about other things. Then out of the blue—no pun intended; they just come naturally—she said the angel’s name was Janelle. It immediately struck me how close that name was to Jenna, the most spiritual figure in my book. I’d started writing the book a little over a year before I’d met Lee, but had stopped about six month later, when I was a little less than halfway done.

  There were a number of reasons I’d stopped writing. Around that time I found out about the death of the abused child whose life I’d previously saved. I also witnessed the firing of a female colleague that was done in such a reprehensible manner it led me to turn in my resignation at the hospital we worked at. And amidst all that, I went through a bad breakup. All in all, I lost several pieces of my heart in a very short time, and I’d pretty much forgotten about my book. But I began writing again a few months after Lee passed away and finished the book about a year later.

  I would be doing a disservice to a lot of people if I didn’t mention another issue that was going on during this period of my life. In 2012 I had an Essure procedure done. The Essure device is a metal and fiber coil that is placed into each fallopian tube as a permanent form of birth control and is marketed as a non-surgical alternative to having a tubal ligation. But several months after the procedure I began experiencing noticeable pelvic pain. I figured it was related to scar tissue that normally forms in the fallopian tubes after the procedure, and that it was something I would just have to live with. However, the pain continued to worsen over time, and by 2016 I opted to have the implants removed (about two and a half months after I met Lee), which required a hysterectomy. The gynecologist told me after the surgery that the Essure device had perforated my left fallopian tube at some point—likely months ago—and had basically gotten stuck to my colon because of extensive scar tissue formation. She gave me pictures, and I now have proof that my pain tolerance is very high!

  But this really isn’t a laughing matter. The device could have killed me—and has killed other women. It’s also caused significant complications for thousands and thousands of others. I did some research after my experience and was horrified to discover how inadequate the studies had been regarding the device. I’d trusted the system, in particular the FDA (the federal agency that regulates devices like these), and found out that my trust had been misplaced. I won’t go into all the details—that’s a book in itself. But the story behind the device is a perfect example of how money often trumps morality in our society. And when that happens in both the government and in medicine, the results can be catastrophic for patients. I would suggest watching the Netflix documentary The Bleeding Edge if you want to learn some of the shocking details regarding the multibillion-dollar medical device industry and the FDA.

  Anyway, getting back to my appointment with the medium, it was eventful in another way: My grandfather came through. The medium said he was quite weak. But he planned to stick around for his funeral and was then going to prepare a place in Heaven for himself and my grandmother, who was still alive and well. I’d already told the medium that my grandfather had passed away that morning, so I wasn’t sure I could really make much of the conversation. I’d given her plenty of material to work with after all. And it could have been a lucky guess that she mentioned my grandmother was still alive. But she also said that I would experience the death of a friend soon, and I hadn’t told her anything about Lee, who was seriously ill at that point, and would end up passing away two weeks later.

  Ironically, the thing that really convinced me about the legitimacy of the experience was something that happened right after I left the medium. When I started my car the SiriusXM station was no longer on channel 8—the ‘80s station—as it should have been. Instead, it was now on channel 130—the EWTN Global Catholic Radio Network. I knew for a fact that the radio had been on channel 8 when I turned the car off before going in, and I hadn’t even known there was a Global Catholic Radio Network, much less ever listened to it.

  My grandfather had been a very devout Roman Catholic. He was strict, but he never terrorized people with religion as my father had been prone to do. He’d worked hard and experienced plenty of hardship in his life, but he still always had a twinkle in his eye. And I could relate almost every positive experience I’d had with religion to him and my grandmother. So I knew it was absolutely no coincidence that my radio had gone from channel 8 to channel 130. My grandfather was letting me know that he really was there.

  Even so, I still wasn’t entirely convinced that I had a guardian angel—or maybe even more than one—following me around. I was no longer afraid to talk about it, though, and I’m pretty sure a few people now think I’m certifiably insane. I also told some of my coworkers and was surprised to learn how many of them have had paranormal experiences.

  But my doubts would persist for another year—until the day I had a random encounter with a five-year-old boy in the ER.

  The only person up to that point who thought they’d seen the blue orb was a nurse I worked with. But I’d already told her what I’d been experiencing, so it was hard to know if the power of suggestion had something to do with it. And another medium I went to (to get a second opinion) also said the orb was an angel, though again, I’d told her why I was there right away and didn’t think to withhold that information to avoid influencing her in any way.

  But a couple of months later I was working in the ER and walked into a male patient’s room. His wife and two children—one of whom was the five-year-old boy—were sitting to my left, and I briefly saw the blue orb near them in my peripheral vision. I’ve often seen it during patient interactions, so I didn’t think anything of it and began talking to the patient. Then all of a sudden the little boy got up and started swatting at the air right where I’d previously seen the orb, clearly focused on something that wasn’t visible to the rest of us. His parents immediately reprimanded him, and he hid behind his mother’s arm and peeked up at me. I looked back at him and knew right away that he’d seen the orb. A child I’d never met before, whose name I didn’t even know, had seen what I’d been seeing for over a year. I was shocked, awed, and relieved. I wasn’t losing my mind after all.

  The patient and his family didn’t know I wasn’t crazy, though. And the last thing they needed right then was to think they were dealing with a doctor who should order a psychiatric consult on herself. So I didn’t say anything about the orb and was going to leave it at that. But two days after the event, on Good Friday, I woke up early in the morning and couldn’t stop thinking about the boy. I remembered how scared he’d looked when his parents yelled at him—he certainly hadn’t looked scared when he was swatting at the orb—and I thought I should talk to them about why he'd probably been acting that way.

  I went to the hospital later that morning and called his dad, who was doing well. But he hadn’t remembered how his son had behaved, even though he’d reprimanded him for it at the time, because he’d received several doses of a potent narcotic in the ER that day. I spoke to his wife afterward, and she recalled the incident vividly. She apologized, thinking he’d tried to swat at me, and said he’d been acting perfe
ctly fine up until then and had never done anything like that before.

  I was a little nervous about how she would react to my explanation for his behavior and eased into the conversation by asking if she’d be offended by spiritual or religious topics. (And if I heard the slightest reservation in her voice I was ending the conversation right then and there!) But it turned out she was a very spiritual person, so I told her about my experiences with the blue orb and how her son had swatted at the same spot I’d seen it in their ER room. Then I gave her my conclusion (or my diagnosis, if you will): Her son had the ability to see spirits.

  Right away, with tears in her voice, she said that he’d previously recognized a picture of her dad in their house and spoke about him as if he knew him, though his grandpa had died before he was born, and no one had ever pointed him out in the picture or talked about him. (I think mom still had a lot of unresolved grief over his death.) But when she’d asked her son how he knew who that was, he told her his grandpa had said so when he played with him in his dreams. She hadn’t known what to make of it then, but now she did (and hence, the happy tears): Her son really did know his grandpa.

  She told me she was going to ask him more about what he’d seen in the ER after we got off the phone and offered to let me know what he said. I reminded her that he’s seemed scared when they reprimanded him for his behavior, and she should reassure him that what had happened wasn’t anything bad. I also suggested she not give him any prompts that might influence his responses (as I’d learned from previous experience). So she only asked open-ended questions like, “Tell me what you remember seeing,” and didn’t mention specific things like angels or ghosts.

  I’d expected that if he said anything at all it would be what I already knew: He’d been swatting at a blue ball of light flying around. It never once occurred to me that he’d seen more than that. So when his mom called back later and told me what he said, I was utterly shocked.

  He hadn’t seen the blue orb at all. What he’d seen was a figure standing next to me, facing the bed. He couldn’t identify it as a man or woman, it never spoke, and he’d only seen it from the back. And he said it was big, like the size of a refrigerator. His mom also asked him to draw a picture, and he drew two of them, which she sent to me. Keep in mind that this is the work of a five-year-old several days after the event.

  Figure One

  Figure Two

  It’s evident that he drew a head and body in both pictures (with only a head and torso apparent in the second one). But the part that I find especially interesting is the area he told his mom was silver, the area on the figure’s back. In the first picture it’s a solid square shape, but in the second picture the silver areas are separated, even though the overall picture is less detailed. At first I had no idea what he might be drawing. But then it occurred to me—wings. He depicted them as closed in the first picture, and as two distinct structures in the second one. An angel with wings. And that was the final piece—literally—that absolutely convinced me of the existence of angels.

  These pictures are noteworthy in another way too—it appears that he drew on angel with dark skin. If you think about all the images of angels that have been depicted in our culture: in paintings, books, murals, stained glass windows in church, on the internet, etc., how often do you see angels with dark skin? Almost never. The boy who drew these pictures is Caucasian, and we live in a predominantly white community. If his mom had inadvertently given him a prompt to draw an angel, and he’d drawn it from his imagination, I highly doubt the angel would have dark skin. I think this is a message I’m supposed to pass along: Not all angels are white.

  I know there are a lot of people out there who will think all of this is ludicrous or made up, but I’ve related everything that happened as accurately as I can. And as Mark Twain would say, “Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn’t.” Many have credited him with this quote as well: “If you tell the truth you don’t have to remember anything.” The truth is—it’s a lot easier to tell the truth.

  I also believe in integrity. Without integrity we are left with no moral ground to stand on. And with no moral ground to stand on, we are bound to fall—as individuals, as a society, as a civilization.

  A few years ago I wrote this in my “book of thoughts” as well: Rich is the penniless man who lives with honor. Pitiful is the rich man who lives without it. And the one with neither is surely not a favorite of God or the Devil.

  In any case, it’s up to you to decide what the truth is. (As Jenna will say in the next book, “I’m just trying to save you from a few surprises later.”) But never forget that our actions in this life really do matter, more than we can possibly know. And love matters most of all. So if there’s one quote worth remembering more than any other, it’s this one:

  Your Heavenly worth is weighed

  In the love you leave on Earth.

  I hope you enjoyed reading An Eternity in a Moment. Please pass along the message of love to others.

  And if you have a minute to post a quick review online at Amazon.com or barnesandnoble.com,

  I would greatly appreciate it!

  More information is also available at:

  www.kcarothers-books.com