A Man in the Afterlife Meets His Sister Who Died at Birth

Anyway, eventually the time came when this friend who’d brought me here, came over to me again and he says,“ I want to show you something.” So I says, “Oh, alright, mate.”

So I went with him and we went outside and he took me down another street. There were houses there. Very attractive they was, with little balconies and flowers and, oh, beautiful flowers, I’ve never seen such flowers. And he took me down the end of this road and we came out to a big square. It was like a sort of street square, off a street, you see. And there was a big fountain playing in the middle. And I could hear music. Oh it was smashing ! Wonderful music it was. Beautiful music. And I thought, “This is real nice.”

It reminded me of the old days when I used to sit in the park and listen to the band. But this band was something out of the…well, I was going to say out of this world…well it was. It was magnificent. Playing away there. Beautiful music. I didn’t know what it was, but it was marvelous music. And I saw these instrumentalists sitting down and they looked real marvelous they did. The funny thing is they hadn’t got uniforms on, they’d got this sort of robe business on.

And I thought, “Well, that looks very nice, but I might look odd in one of them outfits.” But, “Anyway,” I thought, “it’s no good thinking about that now.” And I thought, “What am I wearing now?” and I looked and I was wearing a suit again and I thought, “Oh, yes that’s right.”

And everything was going on all at the same time in my mind. I was proper sort of bewildered. Anyway, we sat down on a little bench under a beautiful tree, beautiful blossom on it, and I was listening to this music and, I was sort of, being really carried away and my friend said to me, “We often come here and listen to music. It’s very pleasant isn’t it?”

I said, “it’s very nice.”

He said, “You’ll find it very restful. You just sit there. I’ll leave you there for a little while and I’ll come back to you.” So I thought, “Alright.” So I just sat there and listened to this lovely music and I really enjoyed that. And um…oh dear, I am carrying on aren’t I?

And, anyway I was sat there with me eyes closed, sort of listening to this very nice music. And then, all of a sudden, I had a sort of feeling that there was something, someone sitting next to me. And I opened my eyes and looked and there was a very beautiful lady. She was really beautiful. Beautiful blonde hair she had, fair. Very beautiful. She looked about nineteen or twenty and I was really sort of taken aback. And she says…er…she called me by name, that’s right, and I thought, “Well, that’s funny. She knows my name, but I don’t know her.”

So she said, “Are you finding it all very nice here?”

So I says, “Very nice, thank-you. Er-Miss.”

So she said, “You don’t have to call me Miss.” She says. “Don’t you know me?”

So I says, “No. I don’t know you.”

She says, “My name is Lilly.”

So I says, “Lilly? I don’t know no Lilly. Sorry,” I says, “I don’t want to appear rude, but I don’t know you.”

She says, “You don’t know me? And yet” she says, “that’s not surprising, in a way.”

She says, “But I’m your sister. I died when I was an infant.”

“Cor blimey,” I says. “I remember my mother says…talking about a little girl that died when she was only a few days old or something, if I remember right.” I says, “But you can’t be her. You’re grown up.”

So she says, “That’s right. I’m your sister. I died when I was an infant and I’ve grown up over here.”

So I says, “Well, beats me.” I says, “I’m very pleased to know you and I feel quite happy knowing you, but it’s still very puzzling to me that you should be my sister, and I never knew her – oh, I mean…”

So she said, “Oh, don’t let that worry you.” She says. “But I’m going to look after you now you’re here.” And, er, she says, “you come with me and I’m going to take you home.”

I says, “Home?”

She says, “Yes, home.”

So I says, “Oh !”

Anyway, I went with her and she took me out of this square down a very broad avenue, lined with trees. And we branched off and then we went down a slope, and it seemed as if we were going outside the town altogether. And we went out into the countryside, down a beautiful country road and I could see in the distance some small houses dotted about here and there. Gradually we arrived at a small cottage place—that’s the only way I can describe it. It was the nearest thing I’d seen, by the way, to, well, cottages and that, that I’d seen at home in England. And she, eventually stopped at a small place in its own little garden, with a little gate and a little porch to the door.

Plenty of lovely flowers, again, I noticed. And we went in. And we went into this little place and off this little passageway on the left, I remember, was this little room—all very cosy and comfortable. Nice chairs. And I noticed there was no fireplace and I thought, “Oh well, that’s odd.”

Anyway, we sat there talking and she started talking about me mother and me father and brother, that I had still on Earth. And she said, she often went to see them and had been going to them—and me—when I was on Earth, from infancy, and that she had been with me all through the war years. And erm, she couldn’t co…she wasn’t with me when I actually died, but she got everything all ready for me. But erm, she knew I’d be coming and that I’d be brought and, anyway, there I was and I was going to live with her and she was going to look after me and I thought, “Oh, this is nice.”

Then I thought, “well, I don’t know, it’s all so strange.” Anyway, I settled in and I stayed with my sister.