Terminal visions

I read the article on deathbed visions of patients [ FT398:4045] with much interest. I am a retired RN who worked on a nursing home/dementia ward for 16 years. I saw patients who were near death look to a corner of the room. They would wave and/or smile in that direction. This was so common that we stopped looking at the wall in that direction. Gregory Sumrall

Biloxi, Mississippi

A while ago FT published a series of letters about forteana that may have gone unnoticed in otherwise straightforward biographies. I’d

like to add an account that I came across while reading Sir Ray Davies of The Kinks excellent 2013 memoir, Americana. The story concerns the death of his mother in 1988.

“The doctors had allowed her to leave the hospital to stay at my sister’s home. According to Gwen, Mum kept talking about ‘a beautiful lady in a long flowing dress’ who kept coming to reassure her and help relieve her pain. Apparently, just before she passed away, Mum called my sister into her room. Her eyes stared past my sister, as if she were looking at a heavenly vision. ‘Gwennie, the woman is there again. The one in the blue dress, and she is telling me not to be afraid.’ Then, according to my sister, my mother’s head dropped back and she passed away.”

Mark Hopper

Hull, East Yorkshire