A PEEK INTO HEAVEN
by Sheila O’Connor Dixon • Orlando, Florida

I believe I saw a scene from Heaven, as I watched a good friend die. It’s been twenty years now, but I remember it as if it were yesterday.

Bobby was only 38, but he was dying from cancer that had begun in his colon and then spread to his other organs.

We had a brief relationship, but it was strong. We met around Christmas, 1985, at a charity event. I was a television news anchor in Orlando, Florida, and he was a salesman. We spent Christmas Eve together, going to midnight mass and we continued to spend all our free time together. Ours was a whirlwind friendship, as it had to be.

I felt I had been blessed to have had any time with Bobby. He was out-going, funny and good-looking. He had deep blue eyes and reddish brown hair and stood at about six feet. He looked to be in shape when we met.

In July of 1986 he told me he wasn’t feeling well. He went to the doctor and when he returned the news was not good. A test had turned up cancer and the doctor was telling him it was bad. I flew with him to Boston, where his family was. His brother had some connections and was able to get him a bed at the Lahey Clinic. They would do exploratory surgery there to see just how bad the situation was.

I had returned from Boston and was taking a day off work when the telephone rang. “This is Bobby’s doctor.” “Can you tell me how Bobby is?” I asked. “I’m afraid all we can do is give him something for the pain.” “But, but, isn’t there anything you can do?” I asked pleading. “I’m sorry there’s nothing more we can do.” When I hung up the phone the room started reeling around me. I couldn’t believe this was happening. I was losing my best friend.

I made the trip to Boston to see him several times before he died. One weekend he was in a lot of pain, bent over and trying to walk around to relieve his ordeal. He was eating crackers and drinking juice. A song came on the radio. It was Elton John’s “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me.” Now when I hear that song I think of him. It is why I am telling his story now.

I got the phone call in Orlando not long after that weekend. If I wanted to see Bobby before he was gone, I had better get there that day. When I arrived in his hospital room, his family was there and they told him I had arrived. He was in a trance-like state wearing an oxygen mask. I sat down next to him, took his hand and squeezed it. I waved with the other hand, and smiled broadly. “I’m here,” I told him. His face lit up with recognition. The others left and only his brother and I remained.

“We’re not going anywhere,” I told him, still holding his hand. Then I watched his monitors and oxygen mask. He was slowly stopping breathing. His brother and I started saying the “Hail Mary”, repeating “…now and at the hour of our death, Amen.”

That’s when my mystical experience happened. I looked at the wall and saw what looked like a tunnel. I saw someone walking away and as I was thinking, “What am I looking at?” The person turned around and it was Bobby…fit and well. He waved and smiled at me as I had done for him that day. He was in a field with trees in the distance. I saw it as bright as day.

I was so shocked I turned to his brother and said, “He just waved good-bye to me!” His brother said, “I’m sure he did!” It is an event I will never forget. It truly made me believe there is more than just this life. It was my gift from God…a peek at heaven. Who could ask for anything more?

Sheila O’Connor Dixon has enjoyed a 15-year career in commercial radio and television broadcasting, as a news anchor/reporter. A published author of a children’s book, Connor and Katy Dinosaur Going Places, Ms. Dixon resides with her husband of 16 years.