Top 10 Best "A Widower's Story" Books

A caring friend sent the sister of a murder victim the book Angel On Board because she had heard the author speak of the extraordinary relief from grief its readers had experienced. She wanted to help, but she wasn't sure how she could until she heard about this special book about one man's death, entrance into heaven and new life as an angel who is able to help his loved ones through the transition of his sudden death. After reading Angel On Board, the sister found comfort and ordered twenty more copies saying, "Everyone in my family needs this!"

EJ Thornton, the author of Angel On Board was very touched by this letter but also says she gets letters like that quite frequently. The book was never intended as a grief ministry but many of its readers have received it that way telling her the book helped them overcome many types of grief issues from survivor's guilt to denial. "Somehow the angels in the story reach through the pages and touch the reader making them both laugh and cry until they feel better," Thornton says in her lectures.

A Widower's Story

My wife Jeanie died suddenly and unexpectedly on August 10, 2005 suffering a brain aneurysm. She died with minimum discomfort. I was "camping" on the living room floor with Makayla, our 7-year old granddaughter (for the past year we've been guardians for our grandkids Dakotah, 11, and Makayla, 7). That night Jeanie slept in our bedroom by herself.

She finished reading her book that night, put the book mark in it and closed it, then she got out of bed. Then it must have happened. The autopsy said she experienced a burst brain aneurysm and was unconscious before she even fell to the floor. I was sure that was true because she hadn't even tried to catch her fall.

I found her in the morning. She said she didn't want to languish in a hospital bed, so she really did die the way she wanted to. The part that hurts the worst is that she went way too young. She was only 54 years of age!

For the first few weeks, I prayed that she would come to me in my dreams. I asked her, if at all possible, to help me raise of our grandkids. (A couple weeks prior to her death, she made me promise that if anything happened to her I'd make sure that they were raised in a stable and loving home - even if I had to do it myself. It was an easy promise to make and I would have done it even if she hadn't asked me.) Jeanie didn't appear in my dreams for weeks, and I was very frustrated and got depressed about it.

Finally, she appeared in two dreams during the same week.

In my first dream, she was in the driver's seat of our car. I was leaning in through the window trying to help her with something. She tried to call someone on a phone, and she wanted me to help push the buttons to make the call. We had to hurry because she had to drive away. I also knew I would soon have to wake up. (My dreams were both lucid in this sense.) She told me several very important verbal messages too, but the only thing I could remember when I woke up was the phrase
"QT something something".
The "QT" was very clear, and very important sounding, but the rest was a jumble. I told my daughter Jennifer the next morning of this dream, and told her if anything having to do with a phrase starting with "QT" happened in the near future I'd sure pay attention!

In the second dream, Jeanie came up to me with a big smile on her face.

She appeared to be very happy. I asked if it was legal for us to kiss. We did kiss briefly (too quickly) and then she drifted over to do something important again, with us both realizing she should hurry before I had to wake up. She once again was struggling to dial a telephone. I woke up, feeling both happy and sad at the same time.

The next day I called my son Adam who still lives in Parker, Colorado near where we used to live. We talked about my two dreams. He told me that he also had two dreams involving his mom. The theme in both of his dreams was hair. He said in one dream his mom handed him a bunch of hair she'd apparently cut from her own head.

I wondered if there was some message we were missing. Two dreams of attempted phone calls and two involving her hair. That night it hit me that there was one one person of importance in Jeanie's life that I'd forgotten to call or write to about her transition to Heaven; her hair cutter Barb in Castle Rock, Colorado.

I called Adam the next day, and he immediately drove over to tell Barb the news. She had not heard and she was glad Adam got the message to her. That message could perhaps have been "coincidence" and/or wishful thinking, hoping that Jeanie had really communicated with us.

The other message, however...
is what has me convinced more than ever that she indeed was able to get through. I wish I understood the seemingly strict rules and limitations on communications between here and there!

A week or so after those two dreams I asked our family physician if perhaps I should start on an antidepressant medication. She suggested a relatively new drug called Lexapro, which for most people has been really successful at treating situational depression. I started on Lexapro on a Wednesday, and by the weekend I was experiencing several side effects, all of which are normal while getting used to the drug.

However, on Sunday I twice experienced something uncomfortable with my heart. It was kind of like a palpitation, but it seemed like my heart was way out of whack for nearly a full minute each time. All I could do was just stand there holding my breath while waiting for it to get back in sync and feel normal again. After the second episode I decided to get on the Internet to see if there were any other side effects of Lexapro I might be missing. After several minutes of searching I came across a description of a very rare side effect, sometimes fatal, having to do with the rhythm of the heart. It usually is associated with an overdose of Lexapro. That caught my eye, so I read further. The condition is called
"QT interval prolongation".

Well, this floored me! I recalled the important phrase Jeanie told me in my first dream!

I quit the Lexapro on the spot, and since then I've felt much better... for more than one reason!

The part that I find even more astounding is the fact that Jeanie told me that phrase BEFORE I began taking the medication! Her warning literally saved my life!

Jeanie was one of the first people ever to read Angel On Board and I contacted the author to tell her about these dreams. I re-read the book and found astounding parallels on the pages of the book to the days of my life right after Jeanie past away, all the way down to being 're-gifted' a Valentine's day card...

I know my late wife is still nearby and she lets me know it when it is important.

- John Craig, author of Creating Passive Income
which is dedicated to the sweet memory of Jeanie...