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02 May 2020

Anne's Love Story

Anne was in profound heart failure and couldn’t walk from her bed to her front door and her condition had been declining for seven months. She felt dying from heart failure was becoming a strong probability and she was worried about not being there for her family, her husband and her five boys.

She couldn’t understand how she could possibly be happy in heaven, if she made it there, while she was worried sick about not being there for her family. She said she’d been arguing with God for seven months.

“God and I had a few arguments”

Anne’s husband woke up in the middle of the night and knew she was in trouble. They performed CPR until the ambulance arrived and despite her apparent death, they didn’t give up. The Ambulance arrived and the paramedics worked for half an hour before they ‘got her back’ but the future wasn’t looking good for Anne.

When Anne found herself on the other-side, her worries were taken away, all of her worries, concerns and troubles over all her years were lifted. She was surrounded by a white light that was filled with love and in her words “God is Love”.

Listen to the whole story below OR click use the links below to find More Love Podcast in your favourite app.

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"People have got to know how much they are loved, it is a love beyond…

there are no conditions with it, it is just pure love."

Anne

HOW TO BECOME MORE SPIRITUALLY CONNECTED – what we can learn from anne.

If you opened your heart while listening to Anne you may have noticed how she told her story with childlike innocence. The kind of innocence that holds the potentiality of love in readiness for expression and expansion at any opportunity.

“it was a winding path, and I come down and I stand on it, it had pebbles on it, that shone, that radiated light. As I’m coming down to it, I’m thinking WOW, look at that!”

Anne

Some people call this kind of innocence being humble or humility. Whatever name you give the frequency, it represents the understanding that we are all equal and that we are all loved and that we are all loved equally.

“God is love, God is love and he loves each and every one of us more than we ever realise and we won’t realise it until we go home”

Anne

Anne learnt to give up her problems to the Love she felt from God, especially how she worried about her family and her sons. She learnt to stop her worrying (something we all need to learn!).

“what I learnt was to surrender them to our Lord Jesus Christ”

Anne

She also learned not to judge others and to help, to be of service, whenever possible. She began praying for others on the condition that they would also pray for their situation. She knew that we all have the capacity to join our hearts with God, to feel the love God has for each of us, however it requires our vigilance and faith.

“I wouldn’t be judging anybody on what their thoughts are because I believe that we’ve got to find out for ourselves”

Anne

Transcript - Anne's Love Story on the More Love Podcast by Helen Reynolds

00:00:00
Helen Reynolds: Welcome to the More Love Podcast. Today I'm talking with Anne from far north Queensland, Australia. 18 years ago. She had a cardiac arrest when she was just 54, and she had the most wonderful experience that can help us to connect to who we really are. If we just listen carefully, so open your hearts and listen. And would you tell us your story?

00:00:28
Anne: Yes, Helen. I'd be very pleased to tell it. So going back to 2001, I was working at an aged care facility as an assistant nurse. I was. Presenting with shortness of breath. By the end of each shift, the pain in my twin, my shoulders was quite severe, but I just put it off because we, you know, you really work hard in those, um, places. Um, and overnight I couldn't catch my breath. Mostly at night I was having difficulty. And so I went off to the doctor and he told me that I had adulthood, asthma. So I bought a Ventolin machine and I would sit up on this ventolin, ventolin into the machine and sit there on and off through the night. But I'd still go to work the next day. And one of the nurses there said to me this day "Anne you look terrible, you're grey, what's going on". I said, I can't breathe, especially at night. And she said is there any swelling on you. And I said, yes, my left foot. And she said, you must go and get that checked out. So after I finished my shift, I went straight away to the Pioneer Hospital where they had an X-ray department. I went in there and I'd gone to the doctor. I'm sorry, first of all. And he gave me the slip to go and have the chest X-ray done. I went in and had it done and I was getting dressed out of the gown and a young girl came in and said, Mrs. Brown, do you need a hand to get dressed? And I'm thinking to myself, Gee, what? You know, that I needed this help. So I said, No, I'm all right. And I she said, We'll just wait for your results. So I walked out and sat down. They called me over and they gave me the X-rays. And back in them days the results were in the x rays. So I get out the car and I open it up. And it had cardiac failure in big black letters and underlined. And I thought, oh, no. I went to the doctor. He said, Don't panic Anne. He put me on some medications and blood pressure tablets. I think it was and a beta blocker. I had to go to Townsville for an angiogram and then I was told my diagnosis. This is till October of that year, 2001, and I had severe dilated cardiomyopathy and was in profound heart failure. I couldn't have walked from the bed to the front door. I was that tired and everything was an effort. And on the 12th of May 2002, I had a cardiac arrest at home.

00:03:33
Anne: For those seven months. I can assure you I had some arguments with God. I am the mother of five boys and the twins are the youngest. And they were putting Doug and I. My husband and I are now been married for 52 years. So back then, the twins were playing up on us and the Lord, "even if I made it home to heaven", I said to him, "how could you possibly be happy there when you're worried sick about them all down here?" I just couldn't get my head about it. So God and I had a few arguments on the 12th of May 2002, and I can remember that what had happened the evening before. We had friends up from Brisbane. It was Mother's Day weekend. Terry and Dale and their two children and Doug and I were at home. And after we had tea, Doug and Dale went fishing. Terry and I stayed at home and we were talking and the kids went off to sleep. Um. And I even remember we were talking about our wedding dresses and I said, Terry, I've still got mine. She said, Go try it on. So I went in, put it on, come out. Oh, wow, it still fits you! And I turned around and the zipper was open about four inches down the back. I remember laughing about that. And I went to bed and we said our good nights. And I went off to bed and Terry went off to bed and Doug and Dale were still out fishing.

00:05:18
Anne: So I'll tell you my husband's side of the story. He said he came home from fishing, had a shower, went to bed early hours of the morning. He heard me make an unusual noise that woke him up. He knew I was in trouble. He said, I don't know how, but I knew. I knew that I was in trouble. He jumped up, switched on the light. He could see that I wasn't breathing. Ran and woke Terry and Dale up. Terry rang 000. Dale and Doug done CPR on me, and none of them had done CPR before. So but whatever they'd done must have been enough to keep me at least going.

00:06:06
Anne: And Doug said through it, Dale said, Doug, she's gone. She's gone. And Doug said, Please don't give up. Just keep going. Just keep going. And Terry tells me that. The crying and carrying on there that the paramedic on the other end of the line of the phone said, listen for the ambulance. You'll hear the siren soon, you know. So they were encouraged when they heard the sirens coming. Doug said, just come in, grabbed my feet and pulled me off the bed. And ordered him out because I must've hit my head on the way down to the floor and he said, "watch her head". They weren't interested in that. And they're in with me for about 30 minutes. And one of the paramedics came out and said, "look, mate, we've got her back. It doesn't look good. But will she'll be going out to the base hospital. If you want to follow, you can."

00:07:11
Anne: Which Doug did. I was put on life support. Father Henly, the Catholic priest, came in and anointed me. And all the boys who were away were called home. But for me. I can remember going to bed that night. The next thing I have is a gentle push on my back. And now I'm into this pit of black. It's a blackness beyond black. And I'm thinking to myself, I had no fear there. But I'm saying to myself, gee, it's dark in here because you don't even know. You don't realise you're dead. You just. Just know that something's different. And I'm trying to work out where I am. And no fear. And then I felt the worry of the twins leave me. Any worry, concern, anything I'd ever carried through my 54 years at that time. Was lifted when this white light shot through the darkness and surrounded me. And it was filled with Love. God is love. So I'm thinking, WOW.

00:08:37
Anne: The next thing up I go. I don't know how you do, but I was lifted up out of that darkness and it took a few... short while, but you could see the perimeter of the light. You could see the darkness out further. So, but I'm safe in this circle of Love. I come up higher and higher. You just go up higher. I don't know how you do, but you got up to this area of white light. That's filled with this Love that's beyond comprehension. I mean, and I love my family. And and I'm sure you all do, too. But it's not. I'm not. It's just beyond any love that's here.

00:09:27
Anne: Anyway, I'm standing there in this white light. I see this young man coming for me. It was my cousin John. And he was so excited to see me. We come right up to me and said, John!. And we spoke. Use you speak with your mind. You transfer thoughts, and I don't know how your do but that's how we spoke with our minds. And I could never remember what we spoke of. Could never, ever remember that conversation. But I can remember him being with me. He stayed with me for quite a while. Then he left. Then my girlfriend's brother Michael, who I'd met about three times in my life because Cheryl and her husband lived up here. He lived in Victoria and he was a truck driver and on occasions he would come and have a load of pumpkins or watermelons on and call in to Serena to see his mum and Cheryl. He was, I said "G'day Michael", he was there. Yeah, we spoke. Could never remember what he said, but he's there and this, this Love. He left. John came back just for a short while. Then he left, I'm there, standing there by myself, and the white light parted into this beautiful.... It was it like a valley. It was the most beautiful green grass on the sloping... of to the left was a slight slide hill. And the green grass went up, up a bit of a slope, down to the right, sloped down to this line of trees. Oh, I don't know what was on the other side of the line of trees. I don't know.

00:11:31
Anne: But this grass was beyond. It was no dead patches. It was beautiful. And as I'm coming down, there's a path. And it was a winding path. And I come down and I stand on it and it had these pebbles on it that shone, that radiated light, because as I'm coming down to it, I'm saying, "Wow, look, look at that". I'm standing there, trying to take it all in. And off to the right. I glanced across and there was Mum and Dad. They were sitting, like, on a garden bench. You know, I let out this screem, "Mum, Dad". They never got up. They never looked at me, but they were waiting for me. And I was about to go. The young man called my name. And when he spoke, I was pulled back.

00:12:39
Anne: So I've no longer got Mum and Dad in front of me. Now. I'm listening. And he said to me, "Anne are you ready to leave Doug and the boys?" And that's when I remembered them. And I say, "oh, no!". And then once I made that decision, I was out of there. I was gone. You know, I kicked myself, you know, for the next....what did I say that for? So it was just, it was beyond....

00:13:12
Anne: So I'm, I'm back here and I didn't know what to do with myself because I'd had this experience. And while I was in hospital at the base hospital, my friends had come. And because I was trying to tell everybody. They said, we knew you had some sort of an experience because everything else was rubbish, but you kept your story pretty straight. You never deviated off this story. And I said, Well, it was a profound experience. But anyway, because I thought "is Mum going to be as silly as this from here on in!". But the doctor said, no, she's on pretty high morphine. And I said that would be sending her like, like what was all the rubbish I was talking about.

00:14:03
Anne: I was airlifted to Prince Charles Hospital in Brisbane by air ambulance. And I know I had a pacemaker and defibrillator inserted, but I wanted to tell everybody. And my husband said, "Oh, mate, look, they'll lock you up if you're going to be trying to tell everybody". And I said, "but people have got to know how much they loved". They're loved beyond. You know, the love we have for our family here is strong. But this love is.... unconditional love. There's no conditions with it. It's just pure love. Um. And I mean, I wasn't healed straight away. I was, like I said, referred to the heart lung transplant unit. Um, which is the Holy Spirit Hospital and Prince Charles Hospital and Holy Spirit Hospital are in the same grounds. And it was 18 months of being on the transplant list. Then you go to Prince Charles Hospital and have an echocardiogram done and you get your results and take it over to the Holy Spirit Hospital. And this young man did the Echo, and then an older man came in and done it, redone it. And I thought, that's strange. They never spoke much to me. And when I finished, I said to Cheryl, I think the heart must be really bad because it was done twice. She said, "no, just wait".

00:15:44
Anne: So we got the results then we got to the Holy Spirit Hospital, waiting there for my time to go in to see Dr. Galbraith. By this time, I'm desperate to get my license back. And I thought, I'm going to ask him, can I get my license back? So I walked in and he said, "Anne what have you been doing?" And I said, "oh, nothing much, but can I get my license back?" And he said, "girl, you can do whatever you want". The percentage of my heart that was functioning was less than 20% in the last echo that I'd done three months earlier. It had jumped up into the normal range, which was 48%. He said it was at the lower part of normal that it's in the normal range. And he said, you do not have to come back here to this unit again.

00:16:37
Anne: I.. I was dumbfounded. He was dumbfounded. I was happy. So when I got out and told Cheryl, we thought we were going to have a cup of tea on that one. And when I got home, I told Doug and Doug, my husband said, "look, love, I think I'll find myself a job". And I said, "rightio". So he went back to work becuase he was my full time carer. I said, I'll be all right. And then I went back to work for six years.

00:17:07
Anne: And I tell my story wherever I can, wherever I go. And. Um. And God is Love. God is Love, and he loves each and every one of us. More than we ever realised. We won't realise it until we go home. So that's my story, good, dear people. And I hope I've given a little bit of joy and courage in your life journey. Um, I mean, I'm coming to the end of mine, and I'm happy to go.

00:17:43
Anne: And what these past 18 years gives you a new perspective on life and death. And there's no need to fear, because if you've.... if you're, if you're a.... good person... And the thing is, I come back with not to judge anybody. So I know that if you're not a judgemental person, the good Lord will always have mercy for us all. So I thank you all.

00:18:11
Helen Reynolds: Ye took me from tears to joy in less than 20 minutes. Anne, what were the years, after you went back to work, like once you were healed... what happened? How did you live life differently? And what happened to those naughty little twins that weren't actually so little?

00:18:35
Anne: No, they were about 18 at the time. They're 38 now, no 37 now. So. No, I mean, it didn't change anybody, you know. And but what I learnt was just to surrender them to our Lord Jesus Christ. And once you do that, let him say, I can't do it. Because, I mean, it wouldn't matter what you said. They're not going to listen to you. They don't want to. So. And you wouldn't believe what good men they are now, you know. But by gee..... Oh, I wouldn't put any mother through it, you know! But. Yeah. And going back to work, I thought, I'm no good at home if I'm. Because I'm not helping anybody. That feeling so much better and had, I believe, a healing and Ithought, in mind and body, and I thought I have got to let people know. And so I went back to work. And when I went for the interview, I said, Look, I've had a...I'd written to the director said, look, I've had a cardiac arrest a couple of years back. But I said, I'm wanting to go back to work. And she looked at me and she said, "Well, Anne, I've just got the right spot for you". And so it was out in the cottages with the able bodied residents and I went back for six years.

00:20:17
Anne: But because I knew some of the girls there, whenever they had a problem, they would come to me and say, Anne, would you please pray for whatever the problem was. I said, look. That you can do this to yourself, you know, too. I said, I will always pray for you, but I said, you need to be doing it yourself, too. So no, all the girls are all very encouraging because the first couple of weeks I thought, Oh, no, I don't think I can do this. It was.... and one of the registered nurses come up to me and said, "Anne, give yourself time. Keep going because we need people like you". And I thought, well, that those words of encouragement gave me the strength. I thought, no, I've got to keep going. I've got to keep going. And which I lasted for six years. So yeah, and it was just that I was getting older that I thought, Oh, they've had enough, hopefully done what I can. And ahh, with our prayer group, we pray for everybody and anybody and we just love it because we love our Lord Jesus Christ. So that's all.

00:21:37
Helen Reynolds: And Anne, I don't, I personally don't use a sort of a Christian language when when I pray or meditate.

00:21:49
Anne: Yeah, yeah.

00:21:50
Helen Reynolds: Um, and you know how you said you handed over all your problems to the Lord Jesus Christ, especially with the twins? Yeah. And he took very good care of them, it would seem.

00:22:01
Anne: Well, but it took time. And it wasn't like it was overnight. You got to be you've got to be vigilant in what you're doing, if you know what I mean.

00:22:12
Helen Reynolds: So I was going to ask you because you said God is Love.

00:22:16
Anne: God is Love.

00:22:17
Helen Reynolds: So if I hand over my problems to Love in the same kind of way, you hand over your problems to the Lord Jesus Christ, is it kind of the same?

00:22:30
Anne: Now. I don't know, love. I don't know enough about, you know, all was brought up in the Catholic faith. And so it's embedded in me that Jesus Christ is our Lord and saviour. So and God, the father was always sort of in the background a bit. So I really I wouldn't be judging anybody on what their thoughts are because I beleive we've got to find out for ourselves. It's great to hear encourage in words and everything, but for me, my truth is that Jesus Christ is Lord and Saviour, and I'll follow him. And because he says in the Bible, I am the way, the truth and the light, no one goes to the Father except through me -so I better take that on board. So to answer your question, I wouldn't like to give an answer because it might be the wrong one and I would not like to lead you astray, you know? But it sounds wonderful. It does sound wonderful. So, were you brought up in any faith or?.

00:23:46
Helen Reynolds: Not exactly. Um. I went to boarding school and was force fed an Anglican and Presbyterian Christianity.

00:24:01
Anne: Yeah.

00:24:02
Helen Reynolds: And. Since then, I've looked everywhere. And what I've found is that there's always a trinity, whether it's the father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, or whether it's something else. There's always a trinity and the qualities are always around love, joy, compassion, mercy, forgiveness. And so I've come to the conclusion for me that it doesn't matter the name that I use, it matters, the feelings I have and the.... Um. The faith and trust I have in Love.

00:24:53
Anne: You will love it if that's what you believe. Good. Good for you. Um, but, I mean, I wouldn't even dare say to anybody what my, um. What I know is my truth. I wouldn't push it onto anybody. I mean, the Jehovah's Witnesses come here and we invite them in and we have a lovely cup of tea together and we talk the Bible and everything, but they're their thoughts on the Trinity is completely different to what my perspective is. But I love them and they love me because you can tell it because they'll hug you as you go out. As they go out the door. Uh, but we don't. I said, Look, it's lovely you come, I'll always make you welcome, but do not try to change me. Well, no one's going to change me! But I said that I am happy to discuss the Bible with you whenever or whenever you like. And so with that, they're happy with that. And they come back every Wednesday. They do not now with the coronavirus, but every Wednesday they come back now.

00:26:09
Helen Reynolds: Wow. So.

00:26:11
Helen Reynolds: And what about your. What did you learn about how we're. To me, you know, ay ay as we live and every day earthly life, you know, we see it, hear it, taste it, touch it, smell it. Yep. But there's there just is more to it than that, isn't there. You know, we don't touch love you know, we see perhaps it's, you know, a husband that we love. We see a person, but the love isn't in them. It's between us.

00:26:43
Anne: Yeah, well, you can't see. See love.

00:26:46
Helen Reynolds: Yes.

00:26:47
Anne: You can definitely feel love. And if you the thing is, when you sort of have an experience like I have. It gives you a whole new outlook on life. Well. Well, it it have to, wouldn't it? I mean, because it's just.... It's so profound. Um, there's only one woman who ever questioned. She said, I hope, Anne that you're telling me the truth. I said. I said, I've never deviated from the story because it is the truth. But I said, Look, why would you be bothered doing it for nearly 18 years? This is about 12 months ago. She said this to me. I said, I can't remember what I did last week. How could I remember something from 18 years ago if it wasn't such a profound experience, you know, And I said and I had to be dead to do it. So and I know I was because my husband found me and I wasn't breathing. And so I said, it's not only my job to tell it. It's not my job to make you believe it. It's just my job to tell it. And with that, she sort of looked at me and had a tear in her eye and said...well, t hat's just it, love. You can't make anyone believe what you're trying to say. Because, like I said, I want to stop everyone and say, excuse me - do you know how much God loves you? And Doug said, Oh, mate, they'll run you in.

00:28:23
Anne: Oh, God! My husband's not a Catholic. We're married in the Catholic Church. But I never pushed it onto him. And so he's just been a bystander in it all. But now he knows something special happened that night. Yeah, life.... just a whole new life. And once you let your family go, as in.... But I never was one to interfere or anything, but I'd worry about everything. So once you handed over to our Lord, it just. Just all dissipates into... yeah, because they're on their life journey and they're going to.... well, they're men now, they're not kids anymore. um.

00:29:11
Anne: Doug and I gave them a good grounding. I believe you know, with. Gave them a good life and they were brought up in the faith. Wasn't real strict, though I can assure you that, you know, it's been a been a wonderful life. I look back, even my childhood with Mum and Dad how... Dad was a returned soldier and he'd get.. friday and saturday nights, he get a bit tiddly, I can assure you. Mum used to get cranky with him, but there they both are in, in heaven. So how good is that!

00:29:52
Helen Reynolds: Thank you so much. Thank you so much.

00:29:56
Anne: That's fine. I'm happy to do it.