My husband grew up as the eldest child in a family of three. The family had very little when they started off, and their father was planting tung-oil trees at a new plantation in the northern part of New Zealand at the time that he was born. There were three children in quick succession…..two boys and a girl. It seemed that the family was now complete with the three children.

The family then moved to a small cottage on a two acre property in a small settlement on the shores of one of the northern harbours.

When the little girl (Audrey) had got to the stage of crawling around the floor, they were living in this cottage. One evening as their mother was doing the vegetables for tea, a pumpkin seed fell on the floor. Audrey crawled along and picked it up and as babies do, put it into her mouth. But instead of it going down smoothly, she choked on it, and it went down the wrong way. Her mother picked her up and slapped her on the back to no avail, it just seemed stuck half way.

So they called  a friend from further around the road  who had a vehicle, and rushed her off to the local hospital. The oldest boy could just remember the kerfuffle of that evening, but not any real details.

The doctor looked at the child and said she had better be left in hospital overnight. Meantime, the next day the doctor went down the harbour on a fishing trip he had already arranged. That night however, both mother and father woke up with a start as they heard the most beautiful, unearthly music in their house.

Remember,  they had no means of playing music whatsoever. They  wondered  where this music came from, it had such a sweet haunting sound, and they discussed it together. How could it be?

But the next day  they had a message from the hospital saying that their  little girl had  died  the night before with  the pumpkin seed going  into   her  lungs. They  now had the explanation for that beautiful music they had heard at that time. They both felt that it must  have  been  sent from God as He heralded their little girl into His presence.

It was many years  before their mother could forgive herself for her carelessness in dropping that seed on the floor and she was always most particular when the grandchildren came along to never let  anything fall on the floor where they were crawling.

Many years later little Audrey’s namesake (another Audrey) suffered  from copious menstrual periods while a teenager. One day,  she  had  lost so  much  blood that she fainted while in the toilet. There was  no   way   the  bleeding   could   be stopped  and  they  rushed   her  into the nearest hospital. She was so far gone, that  she could hear the music of  heaven  as  she was  going  in she said….. it  was  the most beautiful  music she had ever heard. The doctors   were   horrified to find how little blood she had left when they  gave her the transfusion that brought her back to life.

These two small glimpses into the portals of heaven show us what a place of beauty and peace it must be