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Life On Film

Time is a persistent illusion

By Liza SpiridonPublished 2 years ago Updated 2 years ago 7 min read
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Photo Credit: Gemma Evans

What if you knew someone’s time was coming to an end and you could see their whole life flash before your eyes?

That happened to me a year before my dad passed.

It started when I felt the urge to write his obituary, exactly a year before he started transitioning!

It was the summer of 2020 and we were in the depths of lockdowns. My dad was in a memory care facility.

In 2020, my dad’s memory care facility had a COVID outbreak - partly due to the negligence of his facility not having a proper protocol in place. That’s another conversation...

My dad was immediately admitted to a local hospital and quarantined, prior to exhibiting any symptoms. We could not visit him due to lockdown restrictions.

It was devastating seeing my dad utterly confused in an unfamiliar environment since no one was able to visit him.I felt helpless.

I am thankful the hospital allowed us to video call him.

I am thankful he received better care at the hospital…than the memory care facility.

I am thankful for his strong-willed nature and determination.

My dad fought for his life and all I wanted him to know was that he was not alone, he was loved, and that he was supported. That’s all I wanted for him!

One night, as I cried myself to sleep, I went into this lucid state where I was watching what appeared to be an old film projector.

Every slide had a different ‘clip’ of my dad’s life. While watching the film I was occasionally taken to a beach where I was peacefully sitting and smiling with my dad - it was my current age but what my dad looked like back in the 1970’s. I distinctly remember him wearing a red checkered flannel and Levis jeans. It felt like two different time periods blended together.

We just sat on the sand and enjoyed each other's company. My dad loved the beach!

There were an assortment of clips - from when my dad was a baby to his adolescent school years, to when he moved to the states and went to MIT to obtain his PhD. I also saw visions of when he road tripped across the country with my mom and when they got married in Lebanon. It was like I was watching them in a real life movie, yet I was the ‘viewer’ and they did not know I was there.

I felt this sensation come over me where the first thought that crossed my mind was ‘oh my gosh, am I seeing my dad’s whole life because he is going to pass soon?!’ At first, it scared the crap out of me. I didn’t want my dad passing before seeing him in person one last time. Especially since it had been months since I visited him.

After taking some time to process what I experienced, I tried connecting with my dad again, this time nothing came through. I yearned for the same ‘life on film’ experience since I couldn’t shake the nagging feeling that my dad’s time might be coming soon.

I told my husband a couple days later what happened and he asked ‘what do you think it means?’ So I told him, I think it’s a warning that my dad's time is coming soon. How soon? I had no clue.

My husband didn’t have much to say besides ‘it must have been comforting seeing your dad’s life.’ Nonetheless, it was like nothing I’ve experienced before.

Later on that week we did a video call with my dad and I asked him how he was doing. He said he was reflecting on his life and all that he accomplished - that’s when I froze. He never talked about all of his accomplishments before in the same manner, and I heard about people mentioning their loved ones would see visions or reflect on their life shortly before their time was coming to an end.

I asked him, how did it make you feel? He said, at peace. Him saying he felt at peace made me feel at peace. I felt somewhat relieved.

After 34 days of being in the hospital my dad pulled through and was discharged. It was truly a miracle since his oxygen levels dropped below 84 which is considered severe COPD. Surprisingly, he was doing even better after having COVID. I credit that to the wonderful care he received and his strong-willed determination.

Shortly after he was discharged from the hospital, I had another life on film experience but this time it was me in the film with my dad, well before I was born.

I asked for this so let’s see what unfolds. I sensed this experience was trying to show me something more than what I could wrap my rational brain around, so instead of trying to figure it out, I just sat and observed. I felt a sense of calm take over.

This time, I saw different clips where I was having conversations with my dad, laughing, and listening to music. One of our favorite things to do as a family was to sit at the dinner table, eat my mom’s delicious home cooked food and go into problem-solving mode. My family likes to investigate and come up with constant solutions - it must be all the 7’s in my family!

I must add - the only person I shared this with to date was my husband. I didn’t want to scare my mom or sister since we had already been through a lot as a family over the past year.

I saw clips of my dad's life for a third time but this time he knew I was there.

I watched him sit in a class at his desk while he was in elementary school.

I watched him get ready to go on a hike in what appeared to be somewhere in Europe.

I watched him be sent off to boarding school by his stepmom when he was a child shortly after his biological mom passed.

It felt so real!

A month after my dad left the hospital, he was put on hospice. Knowing my dad, he was going to fight.

His pain got worse and the morphine increased. He made it to the holidays yet we couldn’t spend it as a family due to ongoing lockdowns. We FaceTimed with my mom and sister on Christmas and my dad said, ‘my time is coming soon.’ I looked over at my husband and asked him, ‘did you hear what my dad said?’ He said yes. My mom and sister did not hear him since my sister was distracted with her kids and my mom is hard of hearing.

Right after my dad said that I knew it was just a matter of months, or even weeks. I made a commitment to FaceTime with him 3 times weekly to read whatever he was in the mood for. He would mainly request excerpts from The Bible.

I like to joke around that karma came back full circle since I refused to go to church in my younger years - now I was reading verses from The Bible and I actually appreciated some of the excerpts.

I became pretty knowledgeable with specific verses. My dad’s favorites were Genesis 11:1-9 and Matthew 6:14. Seeing an occasional smile on my dad’s face made me smile.

On January 21, 2021 we received a call from the memory care facility that my dad was transitioning- the same date I wrote my dad’s obituary the year before! I’m thankful we lived 2 ½ hour drive away and that the memory care facility allowed us to visit him every day until he passed on January 31, 2021, exactly 6 months from when he went on hospice. He made it close to 10 days without any food or water!

I share all of this because since then I have started seeing other people lives on film, most recently my husband's family. Less than two days after I saw their lives on film his grandmother passed, she was like a second mom to him.

As I explore this enigma, I wonder if there is a name for this? Can I use this to help people? Is this the catalyst to something else or more? What I do know is we know much more than we might even realize, we just need to stay open to receiving.

❤️ Liza

HumanityMystery
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About the Creator

Liza Spiridon

CA/OR. I have degrees in Psychology, Criminal Sociology, am an RVT and empathic numerologist; I write from the heart, and about the paranormal. When I'm not writing I'm exploring hidden gems and reading about past lives and anomalies.

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