When I was pregnant with my son, who is now nine, my fifteen- year-old brother asked me to name my son after him. Two days later he was killed by a fellow classmate. My son was born three months after my brother's death. He has the same first and middle name. I never believed in reincarnation until my son began to talk as a toddler.

I met my second husband when my son was about two years old. One day, he was babysitting for me. He took my son out to lunch and then returned home on a road my son had never seen before. As my husband passed an old saw mill that had been closed for years, my son got very excited. My husband pulled the truck over and asked him what was wrong. He said, "That's where I died!!" My husband called me at work, very upset, wanting to know why my two-year-old son would say something like that. I hadn't known him long at that time and had not told him the specifics about my brother's death. But my brother had died at a saw mill, since that was where his classmate lived.

When my son was about four years old, I picked him up from daycare one day and we were driving home. He was sitting up front with me and suddenly began to tell me what to do when I die. He said, "Mommy, when you die, listen up. Don't listen down. They will be talking to you from both places. But you just have to listen up. That's how to get to heaven."

A few weeks ago, another strange incident happened. My son was visiting his dad for the weekend. He was talking to my mother and father on the phone. My son began telling my mom that he had been with his grandpa (my dad) when he had put a horse down because of a broken leg. My mom couldn't figure out what he was talking about. The last horse with a broken leg had been many years ago. My son described the white horse with small red spots, and recalled that he and grandpa had to walk through the woods to get to him. That horse had died about two years before my son was born, and it had been my brother and my dad who had put him down.

We all had an unbreakable bond with my brother. He was a good kid who lost his life long before he deserved to. I know a lot of people think that I'm crazy or that I want my brother back and that's why I feel this way. But my oldest daughter, who was 2-1/2 when my brother died, talked about him coming to see her at night for those three months before my son was born. This kind of thing continued to happen until my son was born. I never believed in reincarnation, but I now believe that my brother has a second chance at life!!

Beckie Branham
bbranham6@yahoo.com

Posted August 29, 2006