DECATUR - Kathleen Poe of Moweaqua knows.

Delores Shepherd of Decatur saw her daughter experience it.

Joy Sanders of Decatur believes someone was watching out for her.

Al Rennert of Decatur saw it change his mother's life.

Lois Gordy of Decatur felt as if she was living the "Footprints (in the Sand)" prayer.

These were just a few of Decatur Herald & Review reader responses when asked about near-death experiences.

"I don't see how anybody can have this (experience) without having faith," said Poe, 82, the survivor of heart attacks.

"I remember on that Sunday morning (apparently when I had the third heart attack)," she said. "All of a sudden, I saw this extremely white light.

"Have you ever seen a white-hot furnace flame?" she asked. "It's so hot it's white.

"It was brilliant; it was in this tunnel. I think I was saying something like 'I couldn't go now,'.;" recalled Poe.

"I wanted to raise my daughter, Shelly. She was a sophomore in high school," continued Poe. "I really and truly believe with all my heart, (God) saved me to raise my daughter."

Debbie Shepherd was only 22 when she died in April 1985, said her mother, Delores of Decatur. She had been ill with heart problems for nine years, in and out of the hospital.

After being comatose for three days, she awoke, came over and stood by her mother, Delores continued. The room was dimly lighted, drapes pulled; it was nearing midnight. While talking on the phone, Delores continued, Debbie suddenly put it down, went to stand in front of the curtains and began singing.

"She held her hands almost straight up. She started singing praise songs; for 45 minutes she stood with her hands like that."

The next day, Debbie would tell a friend she saw the "brightest beam of sunlight the whole time I sang."

Three weeks later, Debbie died.

Joy Sanders was working in a hospital the day her diabetes began "playing games with me again."

She was rushed to the emergency room, and it was then her experience happened.

"Suddenly, I could only see white light. It wasn't blinding light or blinking light or laser light. It was just light.

"I could feel myself fall, but not as a dead weight would fall. The sensation was more of a drifting -. There was no noise and no wind; there was nothing but the bright light.

"As softly as a summer breeze, I heard someone whisper, 'Not yet.' Just then, the drifting stopped, and I rested in a warm place. The next minute, I opened my eyes and began speaking with those around me in the room."

Sanders believes God was telling her he wasn't ready "to bring me home -. I still don't know the exact reason - maybe it's to tell you this story and encourage you to think about 'close calls' in your life and how the outcome has not really been random or by chance.

"Someone is watching out for you."

Al Rennert said his mother had difficult heart surgery in 1980 when she was 70 years old.

There were, he said, several things she mentioned after coming out of those surgeries: a feeling that was "wonderful, very pleasant, warm and peaceful;" a tunnel with a bright and wonderful light at the end; and from above, she saw herself being worked on by the doctors and nurses.

She couldn't, wrote Rennert, "figure out what all the fuss was about. Her body did not seem important enough to her to cause all the trouble."

"Perhaps the most extraordinary thing about this experience is how she was transformed after it. I'm not sure what part the experience played in her life change, but it was dramatic from my perspective."

After these experiences, grudges she had borne, anger she had held and tension she had created were gone.

Lois E. Gordy fell on the ice about 18 months ago and ended up sharing a hospital room with her husband who had bronchitis.

Gordy, though, suffered a fractured back from the fall and was in extreme pain. She wrote about it in poetic form:

"Minutes turned into hours

and I needed to escape the pain,

so what I'm about to tell you

I don't know if I can explain -

but all of a sudden I was on a beach

and Jesus was also there,

he said he was going to carry me

just like in the 'Footprints Prayer.'"

She tried, she said, to tell her husband not to worry, that she'd be gone for a while. Then she looked up and saw a hole with "brilliant light and a glowing figure with feathered wings was gently taking flight." Soon after, the pain came back.

Marilyn Clack of Monticello had her near-death experience at age 18.

Soon after her first child was born, she began hemorrhaging.

A nurse called out, wrote Clack, "We've lost her."

In that instance, Clack felt the sensation of rising out of bed, pain-free, moving into "the pure white light. I could feel the warmth of the light, the cool freshness of the air rushing around me, the sweet scent of a field of wildflowers and the most beautiful soft music I had ever heard."

"Without question, I was entering paradise, but as I did, I was also seeing myself lying on the bed below and watching the doctors and nurses frantically trying to resuscitate me and stop the blood flow."

When it occurred to her that leaving her family and new baby would not only be a shock but a hardship, she came back to that "aching body, convulsing and begging them to let me go back."

That experience has enabled her to know the material values of the world aren't as important as family and love.

Ann K. McKinney of Shelbyville was in "God's 'waiting room'.;" during her near-death experience after an automobile accident.

"I was in no pain and content to be there. My skin and dress were very white also. My dress was exactly as what I had on in the car." (Earlier in her account she related the room walls and ceiling were the "whitest white.")

She was, she said, sent back.

"I don't want to be in another accident, but I do feel blessed that I've had this experience. It was so peaceful."

In 1972, William Glore of Decatur suffered cardiac arrest. Like many others, he experienced the tunnel with light at the end.

"It also seemed that a force or spirit was at my right side, urging me to press forward to the light -. I came into the most beautiful, quiet and serene place I have ever known," he wrote, wondering if he might see his deceased sons and his mother. The spirit/force assured him that they were there, just beyond the horizon.

"For a second, I imagined that all three were waving to me. I felt elated and rushed to greet them, but also at the same time felt a heavy jolt and awoke to find five nurses in white and two sisters in black habits operating the defibrillator.

"In retrospect, I'm not really sure what I think, but one thing for sure, it sure got my attention."

Arlene Mannlein can be reached at amannlein@;herald-review.com or 421-6976.