by Mary Bidou

Created on: April 27, 2009   Last Updated: April 18, 2011

I was extremely ill. There was an epidemic of Asian flu that year, and this particular strain had already taken the lives of 15 people. My mom was supposed to be picking up my 2 boys for a trip to Disneyland, and I thought, "Thank God the kids will be gone.

She called me less than an hour before the expected arrival time to tell me she was too sick to go and wanted to know if I wanted to take them. The trip was already paid for. All I could tell her was to call my sister. She told me I needed to go to the hospital for treatment, as she had been, and was already in the recovery stages. I hadn't even known she was ill. She told me she had been too sick to call. I told her I was too sick to go to the doctor.

About an hour after that, a mutual friend called me to tell me again to go to the hospital. I told him I was too sick, and he let me have it. "That's the stupidest thing I ever heard you say. Do you know your mom almost died? 15 people have already died. You better go to the hospital." I just groaned and told him I'd try. As I hung up the phone I was exhausted. I don't even remember lying my head down on the pillow.

I do remember that incredibly bright light. It was mid-afternoon, and my blinds were closed in my bedroom window, but this light was so brilliant, I remember squinting toward the crack between the slats to take a closer look, when suddenly...VVVroooom...I was inside the light. Either I leaned into it, or it came from the sky and took me in. For a moment I wondered if I had just been abducted on board an alien spacecraft. I reeled from the speed at which I had traveled, and was dizzy from the sickness. I mentally collected myself, and began to ask aloud, "What just happened?"

My first inclination was to do a self-assessment. I looked down at myself, and quickly realized I was no longer in my bedroom, although I was still in my nightclothes. I thought to myself, "Well this attire is entirely inappropriate for these surroundings. As I was completing the thought, I observed the clothes magically transform into a delightful summery blouse, and a great fitting pair of denim shorts. The change occurred so instantaneously, I could scarcely make observation fast enough. My mind was racing through, "What a cute blouse; "How do You suppose that just happened; "What was that light anyway; and suddenly, "Where the heck am I" The rapid succession of these thought themselves stunned and amazed me, but it was simply insignificant to what happened next.

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