Harbingers

According to ghost hunter and author Joshua P. Warren, a harbinger is a spirit from the future that carries a message to inform the observer of future events. In How To Hunt Ghosts (Simon and Schuster, 2003), Warren discusses nursing home harbingers that appear around a dying person when death is near. In my work as an RN on the night shift, I sensed the presence of harbingers and I will tell anyone that we never die alone.

Warren’s book validated my own experience with another kind of harbinger: one that prevents death or serious injury. My father taught me to ride horses. He stressed that if I were ever thrown from a horse, to take my feet out of the stirrups, let go of the reins and try to fall away from the horse. Being dragged, tangled or trampled is how most people are killed (or paralyzed) in horse-riding accidents. Dad died in 1994.

A few summers ago I went to a friend's farm to ride a new quarter horse. I didn’t get to know the horse well enough before I took her for a run, and I was thrown from her at full speed. In the split-second before I knew I was going off, I heard Dad’s voice shout, “Get your feet out of the stirrups, let go of the reins, and fall away from the horse, Christine!”

I did as ordered and off I flew, dislocating my shoulder. I had surgery and physical therapy and made a full recovery, but I know Dad’s voice saved me from being dragged to death. I am convinced that my dead father was a harbinger: he warned me, and saved me, from potential disaster.