DEAR READER, . . .

DEAR READER,

Hey you...was that ending a little out there ? For me, it felt fitting, but let me preface my reason for it with a little explanation of where it stemmed from.

You know that woman that Dom mentions in the eighties, who flatlined three times and was brought back with a vivid recollection of the afterlife?

That was my mother.

Every detail of her description of the afterlife came directly from her memory of the brief time she swore and faithfully believed she visited. Due to the substantial injuries she sustained in that horrific car accident, she was considered medically dead for a long period. However, the doctors refused to give up on her because she had three young daughters—two of whom were in the accident with her.

I was one of them.

I gained consciousness in the middle of that highway on that sunny day and saw the cloudy sky hovering above before a medic popped into view. My first question was, “Is this heaven?”

All I remember was his smile, but I can’t at all recall his reply.

Ironically, during that time, it was my mother who was taking that brief journey. After coming back, she learned to walk, talk, read, and write again. Once she could, the first thing she expressed was that she was not at all happy about being brought back.

My mother lived another thirty or so years before cancer took her back. Every minute I spent with her leading up to her passing, she never seemed afraid. Maybe she was trying to protect me, but honestly, she wasn’t that selfless, which convinced me she was looking forward to her return trip.

Since that accident, she always remained firm in her testament that an afterlife exists, and it’s better than we could ever imagine. For someone like me, who fears the inevitable, it brings me some comfort. Not to mention her description seems pretty sublime—like a place I wouldn’t mind going.

That said, I hope you’ll forgive my “what if” indulgence, as we truly have no idea what’s waiting because it’s a secret none of us will ever be privy to and can only faithfully believe in until we discover it for ourselves. But if such a place truly exists, I can’t wait to see you all there and feel that unimaginable love, compassion, empathy, and forgiveness we seem to be abundantly lacking.

Despite that, there’s still so much good left worth fighting for, and someones are still abundant, living every single day as a testament of that. I’m forever grateful for those people, and this book is my way of acknowledging them. If you took the time to read any part of this, I thank you from the bottom to the top of my heart.

All my love,

XO

Kate