I am 58 years old and now live in a small village in central NSW, Australia. Back in the 1970s I worked in an office of the Catholic Church in Sydney. My boss (let's call him Bob) was a Catholic priest. There were three or four others in the office, including Liza. They were both a few years older than me, and we all got on well together.
By the 1990s I was living in Mittagong, about 110 km from Sydney, and learned that Bob and Liza had married and moved nearby. Their neighbours did not know that Bob had been a priest, as they kept that fairly quiet, but I did, of course. We saw each other at times, but not frequently. They occasionally asked me out to their place to help with a computer problem (I was a computer technician).
In late 2007, I moved to my present location, about 400 km away from Mittagong. In late 2010 I learned from my ex-wife (she still lives near Bob and Liza, and sees them occasionally) that Bob had a nasty form of cancer, and was not expected to live long.
Then in April, 2011 I woke one morning from a vivid dream about the two of them, and was convinced that Bob had died. That night I spoke by phone to my ex-wife, who told me that Bob had died early that morning in the hospice he had moved to.
I rang Liza a few days later, and she started telling me that Bob had died. "I know," I said. "I had a visit from him." I explained to her what had happened to me.
I don't know what to call this experience. I did not see any presence, as others talk of, but felt very strongly that Bob had come to say goodbye to me.
