Near Death Experince

If I can cut corners, I would. My Mum often said to me, “When you put the oil lamp heater out, leave it on the landing, before you go to bed” I did at first, then I got complacent.... I had the coldest room in the house, coldest in the winter and hottest in the summer. In my little box room, big enough for my bed, wardrobe and Hi-Fi, it was cosy, my own little private world. It was winter and it was cold, back then we had no central heating and it was normal to have ice on the window inside the house, and when I blew my breath I could see it.
It was on one of those nights, that I thought save me dragging it back in at 6am in the morning, with the possibility of waking the rest of the family, I decided to put the flap down onto the flame and as it went slowly cool, would keep my room warmer for longer.

I woke up, I didn’t know why. I thought, why am I awake, I was sure I’d heard nothing, to undisturbed my sleep. I had no bed side table, like many did on TV and in story books, to put my light on I would have to get out of my warm bed and take a large step to the switch. I had no intention of doing that. But yet I was awake, why? I decided to put the light on anyway. When I did, I couldn't believe my eyes. My little room was filled with fumes! Suddenly I couldn’t breathe! I quickly opened my door and window and fanned the door backwards and forwards, with the words going over and over in my head, “I should be dead, I should be dead, I should be dead!” That night, I didn't put the heater in my room. I was thankful to be alive, that was my first, known near death experience, others would follow.

One evening when I was 20 years old, I'd been out with some of my friends, it was a warm Autumn evening, it was dark and we didn't feel like going straight home, so we made a detour to a place where some in our group knew where there would be a group practising, I’d never been to this place before, although I’d passed it many times, unaware of what the building was used for. It was dark, on a main road I knew very well. It was late, much later that I was used to and I would have normally been home about 2 hours before. No one had mobile phones then, not even the rich. As it was late, the road was quiet, and everything was peaceful, I was happy. Then a strange thing happened, it didn’t seem real, I saw a double decker bus coming towards me, in slow motion, it got closer and closer, and it reminded me of the time I went to Blackpool and went in the Dome, that had been the only thing I liked at the fair, it was safe and I didn’t go up high and it wasn't horrible like the Ghost Train. I really enjoyed the Dome, for I had to say to myself, its not real, just enjoy it..... then I saw the Asian driver’s face, I took one step, although I was two steps away from the path, and with that one step I was on the path and the bus breezed passed me with speed! Phew! I was shaking, and thinking, that was too close! My Mum a Nurse, who only worked nights, had said a prayer for me before she went to bed, worried as to where I could be... she'd gone to bed by the time I got in and I told her all about it the following morning.

In 2011 I was taking my two parcels to the main post office in the Town, we had recently had the road completely changed from, one way to two way, the new two way, was for buses only. So I remind my family, “Remember now, the traffic it two way, its important”, and they would say, “yes, we remember.” I was in a hurry, walking fast. I got to the traffic lights, they didn't automatic change to red so the traffic would stop, a button had to be pressed. I had moved to this Town 17 years ago and knew it well. There was a couple opposite me, also waiting to cross the road, the lights hadn't changed to red, I had to get to the post office, before it closed....I looked right, there was no traffic coming and crossed quickly, the couple passed me , suddenly the woman shouted BUS!!!! I stopped, and looked left, my NEXT step would have been my LAST! I shouted, “Thank you” she had blonde short hair and a red coat. I was shaking , I was almost flattened with my e Bay parcels! I keep my Angels on on their toes! I keep hoping I’ll see her to thank her again, but I haven’t seen her yet..... I wonder if she was an Angel. I think not, but a quick thinker.

I was on the busy motorway, going to visit a dying friend. She lived 100 miles away, I had the family in the car, I was in the middle of the three lanes, going at 70mph, normal speed for the motorway. Suddenly the large truck on my right was going too fast and was about to crash into the car in front of him, to avoid the smash, the driver steered left towards my little car, he was seconds from crashing into me. I couldn’t turn to the left or I would crash into other vehicles on my left, so I put my brakes on, as safe as I could and he squeezed, fast in front of me. If I hadn’t braked, we all would certainly have been killed!

I was approaching a petrol station, the petrol station was on a round about ( so the petrol station was inside the roundabout) I wasn’t going into the petrol station today, I was going home from work, when I saw the biggest truck I had ever seen with the biggest, highest, fattest wheels, I had ever seen. It was HUGE and reversing from the petrol station, as it was coming out I thought , has the driver seen little me, he must have, how wrong I was. As I was going forward on the road, the driver was still reversing and not slowing down from the forecourt onto the main road, towards me. Then as he was about to hit me, realising what was about to happen, I quickly swerved to my left, if traffic was there, I would have been crushed between the two! As it was, there wasn't! The taxi driver behind me saw everything! I saw him in my mirror. His mouth and eyes, were wide open in terror!