I woke�with such a start that my body had automatically bolted itself into an upright�position. For some reason, unknown to me, I had an overwhelming feeling that I�was being observed.� Even though my eyes�were still blurry from sleep and not quite cooperating, I frantically searched�the immediate area surrounding my bed.� I�felt a sudden stab in my gut as I realized someone truly was there, standing at�the very foot of my bed. I flung my hand out sideways in the darkness towards�my bedside table.� I was desperately�searching for my eyeglasses that I had left lying there just a few hours�earlier. Without them or my contact lenses, what I thought I was visualizing as�a person could easily have been my bathrobe dangling innocently from the six�foot tall post at the end of my bed.

As I�searched blindly in the dark, I felt them for just an instant, barely brushing�them with my fingertips.� The force was�just enough to send them whirling off of the night stand and spinning across�the wooden floor.� So much for that, my�only choice now was to squint like a mole and try to make out whom, if anyone�was truly there.

Concentrating�to focus, I was able to make out the figure; it appeared to be a woman. She was wearing a brightly flowered dress�with a brown tattered work coat over it. It reminded me of the ones we used to�wear on our family farm during my childhood years. The woman was staring at me�in an odd sort of a way. Her head was slightly quirked to one side. My heart�was pounding so hard in my chest that I could hear the echo of each beat inside�of my head. But then, even in my half blind state, I began to notice the warm�soft smile on the woman`s face.� I�squinted a little harder.� She seemed�vaguely familiar to me. My brain shifted into overdrive racing through all my�past and present trying to sort out a name that I could place with this face.�Suddenly, I realized who was standing there! Oh my God, it was my mother!

I had�not recognized her in those first waking moments, only because she no longer�looked pale and ravished as she had the last time I saw her.� She appeared quite youthful, vibrant and full�of love; exactly as she had been before the cancer had attacked her young body�at twenty eight years of age.� Mom died�twenty two years ago slowly and painfully, one pound at a time. She was thirty�years old, the exact age that I am now.

This truly happened to me.�I was in a horrible place in my life and I believe my mother decided to�intervene.� She changed my whole life, it�affected me so much that I actually wrote a book about it; Intertwined Based on�a True Story. Our loved ones never truly leave�our sides. By- Jules V Ness