My wife, Linda, is a professor of neurology. Hers is a world of intellectual analysis and empirical data. By nature and training she is quite skeptical of supernatural phenomena. One Friday afternoon Linda was driving on a California freeway, merging into traffic. She was preoccupied with the mundane details of her day: picking up the kids from school, making final preparations for Shabbat, ticking off her shopping list, figuring out how to get all the errands and cooking done before Shabbat candlelighting, when all work must cease.
In the midst of all these considerations and the resultant stress as another driver cut her off, she suddenly experienced the powerful sensation of her Uncle Shaika’s presence. The episode happened very fast. Linda felt as if her awareness was drawn to her Israeli uncle’s presence in the upper right corner of her field of vision. She perceived her uncle somehow present, expressing his love for her. It was a riveting and unusual experience.
Because Linda was running late to prepare for Shabbat, she did not have a chance to call Israel before sundown that Friday, so she called the next day as soon as Shabbat ended. Her Aunt Sarah answered and said, “Linda, I am glad you are calling. Your Uncle Shaika died yesterday.” When Linda asked when he died, she learned that it was almost the exact moment when she had experienced the powerful impression of his presence in the car. She had not spoken with her aunt or uncle in several weeks. Years before, when Linda was in college, she had spent a summer in Israel getting to know her Uncle Shaika. Ever since then, she regularly wrote to her aunt
and uncle and visited them whenever she was in Israel. Uncle Shaika considered Linda as a daughter.
["Does The Soul Survive" Chapter 1]
