Childhood near miss that still haunts me

anne SanderSon, 64, a retired medical secretary, of larbert, in Falkirk, lives with her husband derek, a landscape artist. They have two grown-up children. She says: i hAd a near-death experience 62 years ago when i was just two. My twin sister, Lesley, and i had been put into our shared cot by our mother, Susan.

i recall the sparse but sunny room clearly, with its linoleum on the floor. Lesley was standing in one corner of the cot and i was standing opposite her when she suddenly sneezed.

i got such a start that i fell over the raised cot side and onto the floor. At the same time i had one of the strangest and most lasting memories i’ve ever experienced.

it was a dream-like scene where i found myself floating high above earth, looking down from outer space.

The blackness was all around highlighting the colours i could see below me — all blues, greens and yellows marking out the countries and seas.

i could see the entire globe so i must have been a long, long way away. There was also a slender, silver cord attached to my left hand side, reaching all the way back to earth.

i felt very tranquil as though it was the most natural thing to be happening, even though i had no idea what i was looking at.

This happened in 1951. No colour photos of the world like that had yet been taken, let alone produced for a toddler to look at, and we didn’t even have a black-and-white television. how could i have known what the earth looked like?

Fortunately, it was not my time to go.

i discovered much later that i’d cracked my collar bone. i regained consciousness in the hospital and have gone on living for six decades.