July 25, 2007

Hank's Last Breath

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Meg, West Haven, Connecticut, November of 2005

When I was little, I could see the other side. I was always a believer that ghosts do exist. But this night in November made me a bigger believer on how we aren't alone after all.

Let me give you the some of the background information. My sister was dating this guy named Jim. When they were going out, Jim told my sister that before he met her he saw these three numbers all the time: 1, 4, 7.

Jim became another member of my family. He was like an older brother to me, a son to my mom, and the love of my sister's life. My sister went out with Jim for about a year and a half until they broke it off. Two years later in October of 2004, Jim committed suicide. My sister, my mom, and I strongly feel that Jim is still around. We've been seeing those three numbers: 1, 4, 7 everywhere: license plates, answers to math problems, the time on clock, etc. Wherever numbers are, those 3 numbers are.

Anyways, okay now I will tell you my story.

About the end of October of 2005, one my dogs, Hank, got diagnosed with cancer. It was too late for any treatment. The cancer was in his whole system. The vet told us that Hank only had about a week to live. Sure enough that first week of November, Hank just started to die day by day. I will never forget the day of his death.

I came home from school that day and I let all of my other dogs outside to do their thing. But Hank was nowhere to be found. When I came in, I found Hank in his bed looking at me. I went down on my knees and just talked to him and made sure he was comfortable. You just knew he was suffering, because his breathing was heavy and he just looked like he was in a lot of pain. When I got up to let the other dogs inside, he went outside. Two minutes later I went to check on him. He was just lying down on the deck shivering because it was a cold, cloudy, windy day. I got a blanket, wrapped him in it, and carried him back into the house and placed him back in his bed.

My sister came home to teach her piano students while I went upstairs to do my homework. Around 7 PM I came back downstairs to watch some TV. My mom and sister were about to sit down but they were finishing some last things in the kitchen. Hank was still in his bed in the dining room, which was next to the living room where I was. As I was watching TV, I heard this gasp, like a gasp of air. But I just figured that Hank felt some pain, because he'd been doing that a lot lately -- taking gasps of air.

Five minutes later my mom came to the dining room to see Hank. Hank was her dog. He was there for her through think and thin. When she went to pick him up to cuddle with him, she realized that the time had come. I will never forget what she said to me, "Oh my God, Meg. Hank is dead. He's dead." Now looking back on it, I heard Hank take his last breath of air.

My mom, sister, and I just started to cry on the dining room floor while my mom was holding Hank. It was awful, just seeing him dead, knowing that he was gone forever.

As soon as he died the wind outside started to pick up more, and the rain got heavier. We all stopped crying and just started to talk on the good memories we had with Hank. My sister started to tell us that when she was done teaching, she went to Hank, and just talked to him for about five minutes. She saw him suffering, and that's when she asked out loud for Jim to take Hank away, to put him out of his misery. My sister then continued by saying on how when you lose a loved one, whether it's a person or animal, you just want the whole world to stop for awhile instead of just moving on. Now, I'm not even kidding... the minute she said that all of the lights in our house went off. All of the lights in on our street, in the neighborhood, everywhere, just went off. It was so quiet in our house. All you heard was the rain coming down hard outside, and the wind shaking the windows. It was kind of creepy.

While we were eating dinner in the dark, one of my other dogs named Fredrick, was lying down in the living room when he woke up just barking at the couch. My family and I all looked over there, but there was nothing, at least that's what we saw. But I just got a feeling that someone, or something was in our house. We weren't alone.

Around 9 that night, the lights went back on. But our house just didn't have that normal feeling to it. I don't know if because we had a dead dog wrapped in a towel in our dining room, or it was just stormy outside. But I just kept getting the feeling that I wasn't alone. The light's kept flickering, and we would all think that the power would go off again, but it never did.

Around 10, my mom and I were watching the evening news while my sister was sleeping on the couch. At this time, instead of having pouring rain, and gusty winds, we had lightning and thunder too. The channel on the TV was acting weird too. The picture on the screen, was just getting all messed up. If you ever saw the movie White Noise, the TV was acting similar to that, except you didn't have ghosts jumping out at you.

We all went to bed that night around 10:30, but none of us could sleep. For one thing, we were still upset about our dog's death, and another thing, it just kept thundering all night. By the time the morning came we were all tired.

My Mom stayed home from work that day to bring Hank to the vet to get cremated. Before she brought him over to the vet, she noticed the grandfather clock in our dining room had stopped. It's normal for this clock to stop. Usually it has to be re-wound and put back to the correct time. But this time, the clock didn't need to be re-wound. It just stopped. My Mom noticed that this clock, in the room that Hank died in, had stopped at the time of 7:14.

When we look back on the night of Hank's death, we know that Jim listened to my sister and he came down to get Hank. It was just a creepy, spiritual night, between the storm going on outside and the lights going off, and then the clock stopping at 7:14. But we have some comfort knowing that wherever Jim brought Hank to, Hank is now in a better place.

This night made me a bigger believer that we aren't alone. Now you may think that I'm crazy, and it just happened to be a coincidence with the storm and the clock and everything else in between. But my family and I believe that Jim and maybe some of his friends came down that night to take Hank with them.

And for the number, 1, 4, 7? We still see them at least twice per day. So obviously Jim is still here and guarding us making sure everything is okay.