Excerpt from Sondy's book "Not Ready To Die"

 It wasn't until today that I found my faith and truly believed in God and Jesus. I am embarrassed admitting that I hadn't invited Them into my life earlier.  As a child, I never thought my parents or my extended family were much into religion.  Looking back, I remember my mom always making a point to watch Billy Graham whenever he was on TV. I also remember my dad's mom, Grandma Sherbert, listening to church services on the radio.  Later, when she left the farm and moved to town, she regularly attended church services.  This always impressed me.

 I remember my parents going to church only when my brother and I performed in Bible school and Christmas programs. All of my friends' families attended church.  This bothered me because I thought we also should be attending church as a family; however, I never voiced this desire to my parents. Thanks to my neighbors, Carolyn Chaffee and Vicky Jenkins, my brother and I occasionally attended church.  Riding to church in Chaffee's station wagon was always fun.

*In the middle of the night on January 9th, I was lying in my hospital bed in Abilene Memorial Hospital when I felt a presence in my room. I had become quite adept at waking up long enough to take out my arm from under the covers and extend it so that the nurses could take my vitals. Then I would immediately go back to sleep. That time was different. It just felt different. I sat up in bed and was startled to see Jesus and Grandma Sherbert, who has been deceased for over ten years, on each side of my bed near my head.  I was both shocked and scared, wondering if I were seeing things.They weren’t bright lights; they were real people in the flesh. I know this because they both touched my hands.

 Even though I was terribly excited by my surprise visit from them, I was afraid to tell people at first for fear that they would think that something was dreadfully wrong with my mind and that I was hallucinating.  How could I put into words that I had just had the most joyful, powerful, and amazing experience of my life? The message from Grandma came across loud and clear.“Sondy, you are going to have to be stronger than you ever have been in your life, and you must believe in Jesus and have faith in his work or you will not make it.” Jesus nodded in agreement.

 Even though I was afraid that people might think I was crazy if I told them about my visitors, the next day when Mom and Dad came to visit, I told them what had happened the night before.  They were skeptical at first. I told them that it really happened and that I wasn't crazy.  Finally, I could see on their faces that they believed me.  First, Dad had tears running down his cheeks (it was his deceased Mother who had come to visit), and then I saw Mom's tears.  I knew they believed me.

 Because I didn’t understand Jeff and the girls’ protectiveness and they didn’t understand how crazy the steroids made me, no way was I going to share with them about Jesus and Grandma coming to my hospital room. It had been too sacred, too special. I felt that talking about my visitors to Jeff and the girls would somehow defy those precious moments. I never questioned whether my late night visitors had been real.Their presence had been so vivid and clear that I could not possibly deny it. Jesus and Grandma were really in my hospital room.

Later, after sharing this experience with my pastor, Jim Edwards, he said that not many people have an experience like this. I remember talking to him about it and at first feeling very uncomfortable and almost embarrassed for fear that he would think I was loony.  He said that he believed me and that I was lucky to have had such an experience.