This experience took place when I was about ten years old. My parents divorced when I was about six. After a couple of years my mother met and married Leonard who turned out to be an excellent dad to my brother, sister and me and a wonderful husband for my mother. Our home was filled with happiness and laughter.

Leonard worked for the Southern Pacific Railroad repairing the railways around the state. When the job site was too far from home, he would carpool with two other men on the crew and they would leave home late on Sunday evening and stay in campers at the job site through the week. During these times we all eagerly looked forward to Friday evenings when he would return home. Sunday evenings brought heavy hearts because we knew he would be leaving for work again, but Leonard would let us stay up a little later than normal and play with us. After tucking us all in, he would leave for work again. For about eighteen months, this was our life, and it was good.

One Sunday night in 1972 our routine went along normally and Leonard tucked us all in. I had been sleeping for just a little while when I awoke. I had no idea what had awakened me but I felt a horrible sadness pressing down on me. While I lay awake, my younger sister came into my room and sat on the edge of my bed. She too had awakened with a sense of sadness but had no idea why. We both began crying, sobbing but with no idea why. Eventually we both cried ourselves to sleep on my bed.

I don't know how long I'd been asleep when I woke up again to find Leonard standing beside the bed looking down at my sister and me. It was still very dark but I could see him clearly. To this day I remember his words. He said, "Something bad has happened and I need you to be strong for your mom and for your brother and sister. You are going to be the man of the house and you'll have to be strong. Your mom is going to need you to be very strong." I had no idea what he was talking about, but the feeling of smothering sadness was gone. I remember drifting back to sleep with him standing beside the bed watching over us.

Some time later I was awakened by the sounds of my mother's screams and our dog barking. Trembling in fear, I jumped from my bed and ran down the stairs to find a State Trooper standing in our living room trying to console my crying mother. The Trooper had come to tell her that Leonard and the other two men he rode with had all been killed instantly when their car was struck head-on by a drunk driver who had crossed the center divider. The accident had happened less than an hour after he'd left home earlier in the evening.

There is no question in my mind that my sister and I somehow felt Leonard's death and that he loved our family so much that he came back to bring me strength before the news was delivered.

Claude
crschultz@cableone.net

Posted Oct. 28th, 2006