My coincidence involved what I consider a poignant message from beyond, a message from my deceased father on the night of the wake for my mother who died in 2003.

My dad was a car dealer who had his dealership in a small middle Georgia town. He was killed in a freak, one-car accident in May of 1956. His car caught on fire, burning him so badly that he only lived a couple of hours.

The spot on the highway where this happened was completely ordinary and innocuous, and in the 47 years since the accident I have passed it thousands of times, thinking to myself that this is where my dad lost his life. I never saw another accident there, and certainly never a car fire.

But 47 years later, when my sister, brother-in-law and I were driving to the funeral home to say our last goodbyes to our beloved mother of 91, on a very cold and dark January evening, our car was brought to a halt at the spot where our dad had been killed. There sat a burning automobile with flames licking the night sky.

Our car was the first to approach the scene from one direction. A police car hemmed us in from behind and we were prevented from moving forward by police and the fire department in the other direction. We were forced to sit there and watch this spectacle for a little while.

After we left, the car and all traces of the incident were gone from the scene in short order and there was no injury or loss of life reported. For other drivers that night, trying to reach their destinations, this was nothing more than a nuisance. But for my sister and me, it was a message from our dad saying something like: "My life ended here 47 years ago, and now death has reunited your mother and me."

I found it comforting to think that she was now safely with him again, and he wanted us to know it.

William Cheek
Marietta, Georgia
Please respond to john@beyondreligion.com