Growing up, I had believed in the afterlife without question. \u00a0Following Taylor\u2019s death, and throughout most of my late teenage and young adult years, I had questioned that belief. . . . \u00a0The way I saw it, there was a solid, specific answer for all of this \u2014 for life and death \u2014 or there was no answer at all. \u00a0And now, as a hospice nurse, I had witnessed so many things that I couldn\u2019t explain away as pure chance or with any sort of medical reasoning. \u00a0For every story I had about a patient seeing a deceased loved one, or an inexplicable coincidence like the fire Edith had foreseen or the car wreck Al had intuited, my co-workers had ten more. \u00a0I couldn\u2019t ignore the evidence of something more beyond death. \u00a0To me, that<\/em> was no longer rational. \u00a0(231-232)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I recall reading an account, many years ago, of a lecture by the cardiologist Michael Sabom, who had begun as a skeptic, on his research into seemingly verifiable near-death experiences. \u00a0During the question-and-answer session that followed, a physician in the audience \u2014 an oncologist, if I\u2019m not mistaken \u2014 stood up to challenge Dr. Sabom\u2019s position. \u00a0\u201cI\u2019ve dealt with hundreds of dying patients,\u201d he said, \u201cand I\u2019ve never heard a single one of these stories!\u201d \u00a0Immediately thereafter, another audience member stood. \u00a0\u201cI was one of your patients, Dr. X,\u201d he said, addressing the oncologist. \u00a0\u201cI had an experience like those described by Dr. Sabom, but you are literally the last person on earth that I would have told about it!\u201d<\/p>\n
In the busy and business-like atmosphere of a large modern hospital, harried doctors and even many nurses have little if any time to simply sit by the bedsides of their patients and chat and listen. \u00a0But I would think that a hospice nurse would be about as well-situated as anybody to do precisely that and, thus, to be told about such intimate experiences.<\/p>\n
!["A]()
<\/a>
The main office of the Interpreter Foundation after its recent makeover and seismic retrofit. My suite, that of the Foundation\u2019s president, is in the upper right hand corner.*
(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
**
*Roughly ten and a half years ago, a sublimely self-confident pseudonymous critic on a small, extraordinarily nasty message board mostly populated by ex-Latter-day Saint atheists took it upon himself to prophesy. \u00a0And this is what he said. \u00a0This is what that critic said:<\/p>\n
"
\u201cBy Jan. 1, 2014 Interpreter will be dead.\u00a0. .\u00a0. \u00a0Either totally dead or down to token \u2018blog\u2019 style postings.\u201d\u00a0(Bond James Bond, 25 January 2013)<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n*
**
The Interpreter Foundation was about five and a half months old when he pronounced his oracle.<\/p>\n
**
*I\u2019m reminded of an editorial that appeared in the Salt Lake Tribune<\/em> on the death of Brigham Young in 1877:<\/p>\n
"
The Mormon church<\/a> was stronger at four o\u2019clock Sunday afternoon than it ever will again become; the remarkable will and organizing force of the dead leader departed with him, and have been transmitted to none other in his church; and we may now watch with complacency, if not with joy, the gradual disintegration of the whole Mormon fabric.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I hope that \u201cMr. Bond\u201d kept his day job.\u00a0 (Actually, I didn\u2019t see anything at all from him for several years.\u00a0 Perhaps, I thought, he was totally dead.\u00a0 At the best, he no longer seemed to be up to making even token \u201cblog style\u201d posts.\u00a0 Lately, though, I think he may have resurfaced two or three times under a slightly altered pseudonym.)<\/p>\n
The Interpreter Foundation was launched almost precisely 598 weeks ago. \u00a0Last Friday marked the 597th consecutive week that it has published at least<\/em> one article \u2014 which is to say nothing of its books, its blog, its scripture roundtables, its weekly radio programs, its film efforts, its conferences, and so forth.<\/p>\n
That poor \u201cMr. Bond\u2019s\u201d prediction was proved wrong precisely ten years ago today is entirely due to generous donations of time and labor and, yes, money from a great many people, to all of whom I\u2019m deeply grateful. \u00a0Our operation is almost entirely volunteer.\u00a0 We have no salaried employees.\u00a0 Although our bylaws allow the Foundation\u2019s top leadership to draw up to $500 annually for their services, none has ever taken any such compensation. \u00a0Nor are our authors paid. This is a labor of love, passion, and commitment.<\/p>\n
Please stay tuned.\u00a0 Will the Interpreter Foundation survive past the end of today?\u00a0 Will another article appear in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship<\/em> this week?\u00a0 The tension mounts!<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 As I mentioned in a recent blog entry, somebody in Modesto, California \u2014 I don\u2019t know who it was \u2014 sent me a copy of a small and very accessible book a few days before Christmas: Hadley Vlahos, The In-Between: Unforgettable Encounters During Life\u2019s Final Moments (New York: Ballantine Books, 2023).\u00a0 Ms. Vlahos is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":63615,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1104,5835,37044,37047,903,37053],"class_list":["post-103302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-death","tag-dying","tag-hadley-vlahos","tag-hospice","tag-near-death-experience","tag-the-in-between"],"yoast_head":"\n"The In-Between"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\" As I mentioned in a recent blog entry, somebody in Modesto, California \u2014 I 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