hearing voices

Lily Groesbeck, an 18-month-old miracle survivor of a disaster, is in the news this week.  She was strapped in her car seat in the back of her mother’s car, when her mother drove off a bridge and the car went into an icy-cold stream below.  The car landed on its roof (upside down).  The mother died, but the baby survived 14 hours alone in her carseat.  Several reports say her head was just inches above the water.  Regardless, she was unconscious with hypothermia when the rescuers pulled her out.

What is most interesting about this story is that all the rescuers heard a voice from the car, somebody calling for help.  One of the rescuers even called back to the person, saying they were trying their best.   But…the woman had long been dead and the baby was near death.  What was this voice they heard coming from the car?  The rescuers are baffled.

At the risk of sounding like crazy KYLady, I had an experience where I heard “a voice”.  Yes indeed.  It was the weirdest thing ever, but thank God it happened.  I remember it like it was yesterday.

It was a typical evening.  Erin and Emily were babies, about 12-14 months old.  I had put them in their cribs “for the night” and they were quiet, Sarah was locked up in her bedroom, Someone was lying in bed watching a ball game on the TV.  I used the term “for the night” which means I didn’t expect either to want or need anything for at least 5 hours or so.

little girls in their "big girl" bed

  

Everyone was on the second floor, so I went to the basement to run on the treadmill.  I had no iPod then, so I started a CD - the same CD I’d listened to for weeks when running.  I turned it up loud and started my usual run.  Mind you, this was before we finished the basement so it was a big, mostly dark space.  The stairs were directly behind me.  It was a bit creepy down there, but it was a good private space to work out.

 

About 20 minutes into a run, a heard a voice from very near my ear.  It seemed to come from a man a bit taller than me, and from directly behind me.  He exclaimed, “OH SHIT!”  It startled me so much that I turned to see who it was and lost my footing at the same time.  I grabbed the side rails of the treadmill to keep from falling and punched the kill button.  I quickly scanned the room – nobody.  I stepped off, stopped the music, and listened.  I was convinced a man was in the basement with me.  I walked around, checked that the door was still locked, searched for anywhere a person could hide – nothing.  I told myself it must have been something in the music that I just had never heard before.

I left the music off and went back to running, but not for long.  I couldn’t shake that feeling that something was wrong.  I shut the treadmill back off and went upstairs to search the first floor, like maybe somebody who had been in the basement had already gone upstairs.  Stupid, I know.  We’ve all seen enough horror movies to know the evil intruder could have easily stuck an axe in my head before proceeding upstairs to find other victims.

 

I crept around the first floor investigating every conceivable hiding place.  All clear.  I shrugged and heaved a sigh of relief.  But, just as soon as my hand touched the knob of the basement door, the thought entered my mind that the intruder was already upstairs.  Why wouldn’t he be?

 

I turned on the hall light and listened.  No sound.  I began up the steps and was almost to the landing when I looked up and saw….Erin’s gigantic eyes looking down at me.  She was sitting straddled across the gate at the top of the steps.  Before I could react, she said, “I stuck”.  I ran up the remaining steps and grabbed her, just in time too.  It was a cheap, wooden compression gate, definitely not sturdy enough for climbing on.  The rubber pads that held it in place had almost slipped completely off the wall from the excess weight (not that Erin was fat…she was like a wiry monkey at that stage).  To make matters worse, we had no stair railings at all.  The prior owners’ children were teens when they built the house, and our babies were still not given access to the stairs.  If Erin had fallen, she could have gone all the way down to the hard wood on the first floor. 

  

Erin was obviously grateful to be rescued.  Emily was standing by, partner in crime.  I asked them why they were out of bed.  Emily said, “Erin get my doll” and she pointed downstairs.  Yes indeed, she had sent Erin on a mission to retrieve her doll.  I got the doll for her and placed the girls back in their beds with orders to stay put.  Erin had been climbing out of and back into her crib since before she could walk.  For that reason, we always put a gate in their bedroom doorway at night.  Once Emily learned to climb out of her bed, we had an issue.  Together they were fearless.  Shortly after that incident, I replaced the baby beds with a double bed for the girls to share, had proper stair railings installed, and we got taller\sturdier gates for the top of the stairs and to gate the girls into their room at night.

partners in crime

What was the voice I heard that night?  A guardian angel?  Erin’s or mine?

And what about Lily?  Who or what was calling for help to those four men who heard the voice?

I didn’t tell anyone about the voice for a while.  Who would believe me?  I told the girls and Someone about it several months later.  Someone was most definitely skeptical.  I don’t care – believe me or not.  I believe those men heard what they say they heard.  I believe that Erin (and me) and Lily were somehow blessed by something we don’t understand.