A Glimpse of Heaven

Words by Terrell Manasco | Images by Blakeney Cox  On December 11, 2008, Sharon Abbott’s son, Jake, was born. This was also the day Sharon almost left this earth—when she says she went to Heaven.“I went in early that morning to be induced,” Sharon recalls. “I was holding Jake and I started getting sick to my stomach, so I handed him to my husband, Wayne.”At that moment, Sharon was shocked to discover she was hemorrhaging severely. As her blood pressure plummeted to 40, medical personnel worked frantically to stop the bleeding. Family members who had celebrated Jake’s birth now sat grim-faced in stunned silence. With a fierce, determined resolve, they organized a prayer chain.When the doctor came in, Sharon saw something unsettling in his eyes. “I’ll never forget the look on his face,” she says. “Desperation. It was a look of, ‘I’m doing everything I know to do and it’s not making a difference.’”Despite the maelstrom of activity around her, Sharon felt an odd calmness. “From the moment things started happening, God gave me a clarity of thought and a peace that was amazing.”Before transporting her to Princeton Hospital, Sharon was moved to ICU, and her two older children, Elijah and Gracie, were allowed to see her. “I asked Wayne later why he let the kids see me there,” Sharon says. “He said, ‘Because…I didn’t think you would make the trip.’”Sharon, now on life support, was whisked to a waiting helicopter. Though unconscious, she recalls fragments of that trip. “I remember sounds. I couldn’t move because they had given me a paralytic,” Sharon says. “I could hear things. The helicopter was so loud. Everything was dark. It was chaos.”Then suddenly everything stopped. “It was like I stepped from this room to that room,” Sharon says. “The next thing I knew, I was walking along a path with the Lord. I don’t know if it was God or Jesus or the Holy Spirit. I don’t remember putting eyes on Him but I knew He was there.”But Sharon didn’t see a golden street or pearly gates. “It was like a garden path,” she says. “It was kind of foggy, and other people were walking along the path. I didn’t recognize anybody. I could smell Him, and it was…pure. The peace and love that surrounded me in His presence was amazing.”Disoriented, Sharon initially assumed she had been involved in a car accident. “Then I started remembering, and I said, ‘No, I had Baby Jake, and he’s fine, but I’m dying,’” she says. “I was talking to Him and saying, “I have this new baby, and my family. My will is to live, but if You take me on, please make sure my family is taken care of.’”Hours ticked by as doctors worked to save her. Then the attending physician, Dr. Keehn Hosier, told the family they had done everything medically possible. “Mother said he became emotional and was so compassionate with my family,” Sharon says. “He told me later that he thought I had maybe an hour to live.”Ironically, another visiting family member had a similar experience. “My brother-in-law, J.D., who is a pastor, came in,” Sharon says. “He said he laid his hand on my foot and when he touched it, God gave him a glimpse. He described being in a similar garden area with vibrant flowers. He was talking to the Father and pleading for my life. Then J.D. said I turned and shook my head, and he was back in the room.”Finally, the bleeding stopped, and Sharon began to improve. One day she woke up and saw photos of her children in the room. When she saw Wayne, her first words were, “I’ve been to Heaven.”On Christmas Eve, two weeks after she had entered the hospital, Sharon went home. The road to recovery would be a rocky one. Doctors believed Sharon might never be the same again. “It was a long haul getting better. But God is faithful. He restored me completely,” Sharon smiles.Doctors now believe Sharon had an amniotic fluid embolism. “It’s when something from the baby, a hair or skin cell, gets into your blood stream,” she says. “Your body fights it, and you go into shock. You lose clotting factor and bleed out faster than they can get blood into you —and there is nothing you can do to stop it.”But that’s not the end of her story.Six years later, on Easter Sunday, 2014, Sharon and her family were at her sister’s house. Her daughter, Gracie, was out riding a Mule ATV with some of her relatives. “We got a phone call from Cole, saying there had been an accident,” Sharon recalls.The family raced to the scene and found the vehicle on its side with Gracie laying nearby, unresponsive, bleeding from her ears, nose and mouth.Sharon knelt down beside Gracie and began praying. “I was asking Him to heal her,” Sharon says. “Then I felt Him in my spirit say, ‘I’m going to heal her…but not the way you want.’ I knew what that meant.”Gracie was airlifted to Children’s Hospital. “The doctor said he believed her carotid artery was severed and she was bleeding out,” Sharon says.  “He didn’t think they could save her but said they would do everything they could.”The trauma team worked for hours, but Gracie was gone. Again, Sharon drew strength from her faith. “I thought I knew the power of God when he healed me. I did not know the power of God until we experienced what we did with Gracie, and the strength that He provides every single day,” Sharon says. “Holidays are hard, but I am amazed at God every day.”Through a small glimpse of heaven, Sharon realized that life doesn’t always have to make sense.“We have a saying in our family,” Sharon says. “God has a purpose and a plan. He does not require that I understand it, nor even like it; just that I trust Him.” 78