April 5th 2021 - Reported [here]. Lynchburg, Va. A Martinsville native was pronounced dead of COVID-19. Then, minutes later, she came back to life.

Nearly three months after the incident, Barbara Lay is sharing the story of her brief time in Heaven.

"Beautiful, everything was beautiful and peaceful and I'm grateful," Barbara said. "I'm very grateful."

As she sits next to her husband Tony in their home in Georgia, he says words you do not hear every day.

"You died on the 22nd, the afternoon of the 22nd," Tony said.

When doctors declared Barbara dead from COVID-19 that day in December, she says she briefly slipped into Heaven.

"Daddy was holding out his hand and I reached out for him and as I'm going across into Heaven, I saw my mother," Barbara said. "My beautiful mother was sitting on a blanket on the ground. And she looked at me and she smiled and she put her hand out."

She says she then heard God's voice.

"It was something like, 'I have something else in mind or else in store,'" Barbara said.

Earthside, Tony grappled with his bride's death, and minutes later, her resurrection.

"I stood outside the room for a couple of hours and just looked at her," Tony said.

Barbara jokes she had bigger things going on.

"I was just busy with God," Barbara said.

"Yeah, she was just hobnobbing around heaven," Tony said.

Since then, Barbara has been in and out of hospitals and rehabilitation facilities to regain her strength. She has learned not to sweat the small stuff.

"I'm not worried about whether or not I will be able to walk again, I'm not worried about when I will get well," Barbara said. "I'm not worried will I EVER get well."

She even has a new outlook on dying. "I think we all wonder, 'What's it going to be like? Is it going to be frightening? Am I going to be scared?'" Barbara said. "I have no fear of it again. In fact, I'm looking forward to it."