Close Encounters with Death

[Taleeya]

Hi, I did a search, but didn't seem to find anything of relevance, and this is my first thread, so I hope its in the right place...

Do you, or anyone close to you, have a story where you (them) were "mysteriously" saved by death?

My Story: One day after work, I was waiting for the pedestrian light to turn on, to cross a major street so I could get to my car. I was looking across the street to one of those three-scene billboards (the kind that switches between 3 different adds), when the billboard got stuck, and it made me mad, so I kept staring at it, so I could see what the stupid third advertisment was! I finally looked down and the pedestrian sign had just changed into the flashing hand. I was about to make a dash for it across the street, when a speeding car had ran through the red light, followed a few seconds later by a police car with its sirens blaring! Had I not been distracted by the billboard (which to me is a pretty silly little thing). I would have walked right across the street (hey, I had a walk signal!) and gotten hit by this car chase.

My Mother's Story: When she was about 3, her father was stationed on a fairly isolated military base (he was in the Air Force). This frustrated my grandmother, as she had always grown up in the city. So one day she decided to take my mother and my uncle (a baby at the time) shopping at the closest city, which she had to get to by plane. The last plane left at 5:30, and my grandfather (a very strict military officer, who HAD to be obeyed!) told her that she under no circumstances should miss that plane, he would be very angry if she did! So, off they went to the city to go shopping. My grandmother looked at her watch and had plenty of time... they did some more shopping, and still, plenty of time. After a while it started getting dark. She looked at her watch and it said 4:30. She asked a passerby what time it was, and he told her it was after 5:30! My grandmother's watch had stopped! She grabbed my mother and uncle, ran to the airport, but she had already missed the plane! She was so upset, she would actually have to call my grandfather and tell him that she had messed up and missed the plane! So she finally got the nerve to call. When my grandfather answered the phone and my grandmother told him she had missed the flight. My grandfather then burst into tears (oh, and he is the most unemotional person you've ever met too!). Apparently, the plane had crashed about 20 minutes into the flight, killing everyone on board. My grandfather had thought that he had just lost his whole family.

[crookshanks1177]

hmm I'd have to say my closest encounter was when a horse fell on top of me. Long story. It's getting late I may explain another time. I think I told about the accident on another thread asking about worst accidents you've been in or something. I had a bad concussion and 3 or 4 cracked ribs. I was like 12 years old when it happened. Very scary.

[skistar123]

i remember this has nothing to do with me but i remember on an interview with Johnny Rotten (John Lydon) he said that he was booked on the plane that blew up over Lockerbie (spelling?) but becuase they took so long to pack, they missed it!

[Classical_Wizar]

I think this should be in the spirit diversion http://www.cosforums.com/forumdisplay.php?f=53

[crookshanks1177]

I was wondering if it should be in the spiritual division also.

[Kathleen Malfoy]

Well, one time when I was 4 years old I was staying at a cottage by a lake.

One day I walked out on the dock and stood at the end of it, looking out across the lake. Then for some reason, I have no idea why, I just walked right off. I didn't choose to myself or anything, and I had all my clothes on so it was really weird.

Being 4 years old, I didn't know how to swim. For some reason though I could see through the water and I saw this big fish and some little red crabs. Then suddently I was lifted out of the water by my father who must have seen me go in.

It was scary because I could have drown.

I think that's the closest I've ever come to death and I hope it never happens again! At least now I can swim though.

Anyway, my dad has had 4 close encounters with death. Once when he was just a baby and got really sick and came just a few days away from death but somehow he got better again.

Then when he was about 19 he got in a bad car crash where the car flipped and rolled over a few times so that was a serious accident but he came out unhurt and so did the other person he was with in the car.

A few years later he got seriously electricuted at his place of work. He was an employee at this hospital and was one of the people who looks after the electicity in the hospital. What happened was one of the other people hit a switch when he shouldn't have and my dad ended up getting electricuted and blashed a few feet backwards. He's really lucky that he didn't die and of course the guy who made the mistake was fired.

The last time that my dad had a close encounter with death was back in the 80's when I was just a year old. It happened at my dad's office where someone tried to kill him! This crazy guy came in with a knife and tried to stab my dad with it. However, their office was right across the road from a police station and someone had called the police so they were able to come really fast and get the guy before he had attacked my dad.

My dad seems to get some problems from his job for some reason. Because we also had people go on strike before in our yard. They weren't people who worked for my dad either but instead were these really weird looking people in strange clothes who were upset about some decision that some people working under my father made. I remember my father getting all of us out of the house before they showed up and we went away somewhere. When we came back though they were still in our yard so we parked our car far away and then snuck through our neighbours back yards and snuck into our house from the back, pretending not to be home. lol.

It's a good thing too because that group could have been violent. Their leader is now in jail for causing a riot somewhere.

[crookshanks1177]

I said I would come back and explain the horse backriding accident I had. So here goes...


I was 12 year old or so. I was in the arena riding this horse I was taking care of. Something spooked her. She reared up on her two back legs. When a horse rears up like that usually you lean forward pushing your weight forward and the horse will go back to all fours. Well this wasn't working. So I jumped off. Another thing you are taught in horseback riding is how to fall lol. I jumped off and tried rolling away from the horse. But I wasn't in time. When I hit the ground and was trying to roll away the horse fell backwards on top of me and rolled on top of me. I had a concussion and 3 or 4 cracked ribs. But other than that amazingly no broken bones or other injuries. Well my back is a little messed up from it still.

[angelfaith]

hmm...i dont have any stories of my own, well, none i can remember anyway,
but i saw this movie called 'final destination',its worth a look...i think its meant to be horror (but didnt quite make it there for me) but it operates on the principle of predetermination and the inability to effect fate...meh

[grammer]

My friend has drowned twice in her life. The first time she remembers looking down on her body and wondering what was happening. Then they hit her on the chest (CPR) and the next thing she remembers is horrible pain in her chest and coughing up water. She was about 7 when that happened to her.

When she was about 12, she fell off a boat. She remembers floating into her grandmother's kitchen - Her grandmother turned around and told her "you don't belong here, yet" - Suddenly she was back in her body and coughing again.

Guess what, she hates swimming and dislikes boats. Big surprise!! :lol:

[crookshanks1177]

My friend has drowned twice in her life. The first time she remembers looking down on her body and wondering what was happening. Then they hit her on the chest (CPR) and the next thing she remembers is horrible pain in her chest and coughing up water. She was about 7 when that happened to her.

When she was about 12, she fell off a boat. She remembers floating into her grandmother's kitchen - Her grandmother turned around and told her "you don't belong here, yet" - Suddenly she was back in her body and coughing again.

Guess what, she hates swimming and dislikes boats. Big surprise!! :lol:

When I was unconscience from that horseback riding accident I described earlier in the thread I remember like what you described floating above your body and wondering what is happening. I always thought it may have been a dream. I'm not really sure.
When the Oklahoma City Bombing happened my mother, stepfather, and best friends father were stuck in traffic on their way to the building. They were less then 5 miles from the building when it was bombed. We couldn't find out for 3 days or so if they were alive or not. Long story.

[Stellamedusa]

I almost walked off a cliff once. We went camping, and by the time we'd arrived and put up the tent etc, it was dark. So we decided to explore the surrounding area in darkness, which was really not smart. We walked off into the forest, which was quite thick,(no pathway either, also very not smart) and after a short time, we went down a large step and found there were suddenly no trees. Fortunately one of my friends was worried we'd get lost and insisted we turn back right then, because when we retraced our steps in the morning, we found the step was actually the edge of a two-metre wide path cut into the side of a sheer cliff. I still get a shiver when I think about how close we all came to just walking off like lemmings.

[skistar123]

I once nearly got hit on the head by a discus... the funny thing is that I was talking to my mates, as you do in PE... and this discus flew right past my head and I never even knew. We laugh about it now, but I could have killed me. I wasn't 'mysteriously' saved, but it was funny. Oh and I'm being attacked by evil pop ups which are somehow managed to get through the pop up blocker. And I'm being attacked by evil blank toolbars at the top of this window... HELP!

My great grandfather flew planes in the second world war and got shot up the bum...

[chocolate brown]

Well, once when I was 9 years old I was going to music school, and there is this little, quiet street I always go through ('cause I like it), and there are almost no cars there. And that day I was in that street, and there were just a few people walking there, all minding their own bussines. And it was so quiet, you could only hear the birds singing. So I decided to cross the street and I stopped and listenes before I crossed it, just to make shure there were no cars that were coming, and when I started walking suddenly a car appeared only a meter away from me, and everyone stopped, I could already hear someone screaming: "Quickly, call the ambulance!!!" and just before the car hit me I heared a woman scream, and when I heared her scream I felt like I woke up or something, and I took a step backwards. Only a small, tinny step. To others it might seem like nothing, but that little step saved my life.
I took a step backwards and the car didn't even stop. He just kept driving.
The car was only 5 cm away from me when it speeded by!!!
I got so scared!
Later the police stopped him 'cause he ran over a cat only a few meters after he almost hit me, and I found out he was driving a 120km/h!!!

That was the scariest thing in the world!!!!!!!!

[FawkesRox]

When I was nine, I was laying on one of those pool floatie things relaxing in my friends pool. Well my friends mom let the dog out, a big HUGE Golden retriever who at the time was bigger then I was. This dog ran over and jumped from the side of the pool and landed on the edge of the pool floatie. The floatie flipped over, with me on the bottom, and the dog on top. I screamed because well, if that happened to you what would be your first reaction? I didn't have time to get another breath, and I imediatly went under, underneath the floatie. I didn't have much time to think so I was like pressing upwards to get the dog off so I could breathe, I hadn't thought of swimming underneath and comming up away from the dog. Well I finnally figured it out and by then I was really dizzy and my life was flashing before my eyes so I dived under and well the dog somehow saw me or something and jumped off the thing and followed me, and swam over to me, and tried to jump on my back. By then my friend had come out of her house (she was in getting us drinks) and she managed to call the dog off but by then I was pretty badly clawed up on my back. It wasn't the dog's fault, he was trying to be friendly and I was trying to breathe. Lordy. I was really freaked.

[Nox182]

I was in Turkey during the 1999 earthquake. It wasn't as strong as others, but I was on a 10th floor in Istanbul, sleeping comfortably. The whole building started to shake (I literally fell due to the movement). I could only think "this is it".
The next morning, on my way to the airport (the night before was our last night in Istanbul), I saw this building that looked normal, but once the bushes on the highway cleared, only the foundations of it could be seen from the 3rd floor downwards.
Chilling experience.

[Dawn_Potter]

I don't know, there where a few times where I thought that I could have been dead afterwards... but nothing really really serious

[HarryPotter]

Perhaps the time my father did something weird with the car and almost makes the whole family get under a truck at high speed... it was a matter of miliseconds.