By: Telly Gonzaga-Ocampo
A glimpse of Valhalla
When I was young, I read a book of Marie Correlie, the title of which I can no longer remember. Our town, then, had a small library near the mayor’s office in the old munisipyo of Baclayon. We borrowed books from that small library, every now and then, during summer vacation.
That book left an indelible imprint in my mind so much so that it gave me one of the reasons to decide to marry my husband who was then a Protestant.
The story was this:
The girl was a Christian and the man was Nordic. The Nordics, as a people, are water people in the vast season and lakes. They bury their dead in the depth of the vastness of the lake and seas amidst the serenity and the calmness of the landscape where the waters were surrounded by nature at its best.
What’s the connection? Recently, I thought I’ll be passing through that “depth of the vastness of the lake and seas” on my way to the GREAT BEYOND. This happened one day this July 2025 when I was brought to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of Luther Z. Ramiro community hospital. I was intubated for two and a half days fighting for dear life. My daughter, Irene, made the decision for the intubation for I refused the procedure. My mind was very clear and the last thing I told her was to call Msgr. Vicente Matias Nunag to give me the sacrament.
In that state when and where I was fighting for life against death, I was given a glimpse of Heaven every time I closed my eyes. I imagined I was floating. I even saw myself slumped in bed as I seemed to float. The ceiling of my room gradually opened to the skies where the field of flowers was abundant in the middle of the lake.
I cannot define and find the right words to describe the radiance of the sky. There was light all over but I could not see the moon and the sun.
Then, I was just brought to the Lakeshore. The field of flowers in the middle of the lake gradually ascended to the trees above serenely implanted in the branches of the surrounding trees, engulfed in the clouds above.
Suddenly, a raft surfaced on the waters in front of me. Yes, there was a raft but there was no, ramp me to step on so I could transfer to the raft. There was nobody assigned to maneuver the raft and people at the edge on the lake had their back against me. I was hoping for my loved ones to meet me and hold my hands to get there. All these were very vivid to me.
When I opened my eyes, I thought Heaven must have been waiting for me. I had a valhalla. And I found death beautiful.
But as Dr. Brown has said, “It’s not yet your time.”