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Premonitions happen so it's not advisable to discount them

By Susan Anderson-Khleif

A premonition is a feeling that something will happen in the future. It's a feeling or sensation that something bad or sad will happen. Sometimes it comes in a dream. But not necessarily. Sometimes premonitions become reality, yet usually they are just anxiety and worry.

However, I saw a story recently about an 8-year-old girl who had a dream that both her parents were killed. She told her teachers and relatives but they assured her it was just a bad dream and that her parents were fine and healthy, and not to worry. But she did worry; it was so vivid to her.

Six months later, a tornado hit her town and countryside, and both her parents died in that tornado. She was thrown a great distance from the house and landed in a field. The girl survived but, indeed, both parents were killed. The dream was a premonition.

Well, I know of at least three premonitions, personally.

One was when my dear husband told me, let's not argue (nothing important anyway), because "We don't know how much time we have left." He had a stroke a week later.

And also a couple weeks before that, right out of the blue, Baheej said, "If anything happens to me, rely on (this person), not (that person)." I thought this was a strange thing to say, but I replied, "OK," and then we just changed the topic. But later, I remembered it of course.

And the third premonition I know about happened years ago. My parents had friends named Joe and Kay Marvin. They were very best friends and often played bridge together on our big front porch. Joe was an obstetrician. Mom and Joe were dear friends. They understood each other, and like my father, Joe appreciated mom's spirited personality. We called him Dr. Joe. Well, one day years ago, Joe called to wish mom happy birthday. And mom said, but my birthday is not until next week. Joe replied, "I know but I was just thinking about it and thought I'd call now." And Dr. Joe died two days later. That was a premonition, I'm sure.

But even more extraordinary, 40 years later when mom was dying in hospice, one day my sister Mary was sitting with mom at her bedside and they were chatting. And Mary had brought a good friend and his wife with her to visit mom. Suddenly mom said to Mary's friends whom she knew, "Let me introduce you to Dr. Marvin." Mom seemed to think Dr. Joe was standing by her on the other side of the bed. Clearly Joe was there to comfort her and welcome her to the spirit world. Pretty amazing. These things happen, at least to some people. Mom died soon after that.

Of course people do not usually talk about any premonition they have had or know about from someone else because this is a topic people just don't talk about.

Recently someone close to me was going to a psychic and I asked her to ask about premonitions. The psychic told her, "Yes, they happen. Usually they are a spirit guide and some close one who had died earlier." But she also said the premonition may not be how the event exactly happens. It's more of a warning. So, for instance, a death of someone may not be a death but some other kind of loss.

And in another example, a friend told me she had a premonition when she was in high school. Her elder brother was on a warship in the South Pacific during the Vietnam War. The ship caught on fire and it was on the news. Twenty sailors died, so they were so worried. My friend had a dream two days later when they were still waiting for a telephone call. Her mother said, "I'm going to the train to pick up your father, if your brother calls you take the information." And he called in the dream, so the mother heard the phone and ran back into the house, and her brother was OK. So my friend felt better. The next day, it happened just exactly like in the dream; he called, the mother ran back into the house, and her son was OK. A premonition. In this case it happened exactly the same as the dream.

The point is: If you've had, or know of a premonition, it's probably good not to discount it - strange but true for some. It happens. A type of advance warning. Anyway, I personally learned to take premonitions seriously. Hope everyone is enjoying the summer.

• Susan Anderson-Khleif of Sleepy Hollow has a doctorate in family sociology from Harvard, taught at Wellesley College and is a retired Motorola executive. Contact her at sakhleif@comcast.net or see her blog longtermgrief.tumblr.com. See previous columns at www.dailyherald.com/topics/Anderson-Kleif-Susan.

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