Forward TO VISITATION

During the season of late winter, early spring of 1989 an event occurred that had an incredible impact on my life. To preface my naming of that event I must provide a bit of history. Four years
previously I had graduated from college with a major in Comprehensive Sociology and a minor in Psychology, but seemed to find only odd jobs here and there. My parents were both disabled, so
even though technically I wasn’t working, I stayed very busy. My sister Pamela, who is nine years younger than I am, was also still at home, but was of the age and mindset that she did not wish to be burdened with such responsibilities.

Now it was customary at that time for my sister, my mother and my step father to follow a certain routine after supper. My sister was wont to stay up until the wee hours of the morning, listen to rock music and sleep until noon. My mother usually went to bed around eight or nine at night, but had me massage her legs as they caused her great pain, throughout the day and at least once during the night. Not many years later, she lost them both, to her battle with diabetes. Also it was my mother’s habit to use the bathroom several times during the evening. My step father would sit in the recliner, after supper, watch some news and then drift off to sleep, wake up in time to watch the late night news, and then arise in the morning at about six.

The “event” not only affected me, but stopped their routines as well. My sister said she was ill and went to bed after supper. My mother had her legs massaged early and retired for the day as well. My step father’s routine, at least initially, seemed unaffected. My sister was up long before noon. My mother remarked the next day that she had “slept like a log” and hadn’t even gotten up to use the bathroom once. Most surprising, my step father, awoke at six the following morning in the recliner! He’d never made it to bed. To the best of my knowledge, he never slept the whole night through, in his easy chair, again.

So what was that event? While all of this was happening, I had a vision that was unlike the few I have had before or after. Not only was the vision quite intense, but it lasted literally from sun down until sun up, rather than mere moments. I was sitting on the couch in my room and then got up and sat on the edge of my bed. And then the vision happened. In the vision I could see Jesus sitting across from me on the small couch. And then the vision happened again, the next night, but it was quick and merely high-lighted some of the things I’d seen the night before. Later, following the “event,” when my mom would be in pain, and I was gone, she would sit there, on that couch, and her pain would go away. She mentioned that several times over the years.

While I did not tell my family about it, I did talk to a few Christian friends and years later began to share more of what had happened. Suffice it to say, much of the material from that vision was written down and kept locked in an attaché case. Decades later, I put that information initially in a manuscript and later, split that into two books. Both THE BABY ECHOLALIA OF CHRISTENDOM and VISITATION, whether directly or as a result of its influence, are products of that vision.