Kevin had already made his Halloween costume with his mom and helped his dad decorate their house. He was excited about how much candy he would collect. But one house on his street didn’t have any decorations, and that kept bothering him. He didn’t understand why someone wouldn’t celebrate Halloween, so he thought maybe they needed help.
Halloween was almost here, and the entire neighborhood was buzzing with excitement. Every yard seemed to be trying to be the scariest one around.
There were pumpkins with big, jagged smiles all along the sidewalks. Plastic skeletons hung from tree branches, and fake cobwebs covered porches.
The air smelled like dry leaves and candy, and eleven-year-old Kevin could feel his heart racing with excitement.
Halloween was Kevin’s favorite day of the year, a time when anyone could be whatever they wanted. He loved how everything changed for that one magical night.
As he walked down the street, he smiled, looking at the glowing jack-o’-lanterns and spooky ghosts decorating the houses. Some homes even played creepy sounds like witches’ laughter and creaking doors.
But something different caught his eye as he went farther down the street. One house was dark and plain, with no decorations at all. It was Mrs. Kimbly’s house.
Mrs. Kimbly was an older woman who lived alone. Kevin had helped her before, mowing her lawn in summer and shoveling snow in winter, but she rarely said much. Her undecorated house seemed out of place in the festive neighborhood.
Kevin felt bad that her house had no Halloween spirit. He thought maybe she needed help with the decorations. Determined, he crossed the street and knocked on her door.
When Mrs. Kimbly answered, her face showed annoyance. “What do you want, Kevin?” she asked in a gruff voice.
“I noticed you don’t have any Halloween decorations. I could help you put some up, if you’d like,” Kevin offered.
Mrs. Kimbly frowned. “I don’t need decorations, and I don’t need help,” she said sharply before slamming the door.
Kevin was surprised. How could anyone hate Halloween so much? He didn’t want her house to be a target for pranks, like kids throwing toilet paper, so he came up with a plan.
At home, Kevin told his mom, Sarah, about Mrs. Kimbly’s undecorated house and how she had slammed the door in his face. His mom suggested leaving her alone, explaining that people might have reasons for not celebrating.
But Kevin didn’t think Mrs. Kimbly hated Halloween—she seemed lonely. So, he decided to help anyway.
He gathered all the Halloween decorations he could find, including his favorite pumpkin, and hurried back to Mrs. Kimbly’s house. He carefully hung lights and placed pumpkins on her porch. As he finished, the front door opened, and Mrs. Kimbly stormed out, furious.
“I told you not to decorate my house!” she yelled. She grabbed Kevin’s carved pumpkin and smashed it on the ground. Kevin was shocked and hurt, but he whispered, “I just wanted to help,” before running home.
That night, Kevin put on his vampire costume, but he couldn’t enjoy Halloween. He was worried about Mrs. Kimbly’s house being pranked. So, he returned to her house and sat on her porch, handing out candy from his own bag to trick-or-treaters, explaining that Mrs. Kimbly wasn’t home.
As he sat alone, the door creaked open. Mrs. Kimbly stepped out, her expression softer this time.
“What are you doing here, Kevin?” she asked quietly.
“I didn’t want anyone to mess with your house,” Kevin explained. “I thought I could help.”
Mrs. Kimbly sighed and sat beside him. She admitted that Halloween was hard for her because it reminded her of how alone she was. She had no family to share it with.
Kevin understood now. “You don’t have to be alone,” he said. “You can celebrate with the rest of us.”
Mrs. Kimbly smiled sadly and thanked Kevin for his kindness. She even apologized for smashing his pumpkin. Kevin promised to bring another one so they could carve it together.
For the first time in years, Mrs. Kimbly felt the warmth of Halloween again, thanks to the caring heart of one determined boy.
A woman who died and came back to life after 11 minutes has shared what she experienced during that time.
A woman named Charlotte Holmes said she spent 11 minutes in heaven after a near-death experience and shared the amazing things she saw in the afterlife.
In September 2019, Charlotte was at a routine check-up with her heart doctor when her blood pressure suddenly shot up to a dangerous 234/134. The doctors told her she might be having another stroke or a heart attack.
She was taken to the hospital while her husband, Danny, watched helplessly. He recalled the moment he thought he might lose her, saying, “Immediately, they called a code, and everyone rushed in. They started working on her, and I wondered if I would even be able to bring her home.”
As Charlotte’s condition got worse, she began to describe things she could see, like flowers. But when Danny looked around the room and realized there were no flowers, he realized something incredible. “That’s when I knew she was not in this world,” he said.
Charlotte’s heart had stopped, and for the next 11 minutes, she was clinically dead. But during that time, she said she was looking down at her lifeless body while watching doctors and nurses try to bring her back.
“I could smell the most beautiful flowers I’ve ever smelled, and then I heard music,” she remembered. “When I opened my eyes, I knew where I was. I knew I was in heaven.”
Charlotte, who lives in Wichita, Kansas, described being surrounded by incredible beauty in every direction. She watched everything sway in time with the music she could hear.
“I can’t explain what heaven looked like because it’s so much more amazing than we can imagine,” she said. Then, a group of angels led her deeper into the afterlife.
“There’s no fear, just pure joy when the angels are with you,” she continued. “I saw my mom, my dad, my sister, and other family members standing behind them.”
Write this in easy human language:
“I seen saints of old,” the mum explained. “They didn’t look old, they didn’t look sick, none of them wore glasses. They looked like they were in their 30s. Yet it says in the scriptures, ‘we will be known as we were known’.
“I knew them there in their new bodies. They looked wonderful.”
Charlotte then revealed that she saw a toddler, which left her quite confused.
She said: “I can remember thinking, ‘who is this?’ And I heard my heavenly father say to me, ‘It’s your child.’
“I lost that child. I was five-and-a-half months pregnant. I can remember them holding the baby up and saying, ‘Charlotte, it’s a boy’. Then he was gone. So when I seen this toddler, I said, ‘God, how is that possible?’
“He said, ‘They continue to grow in heaven – but there’s no time, it’s eternity’.”
Charlotte then claimed that she was taken to a place that was the complete opposite of the paradise she had just enjoyed.
“God took me to hell, and I looked down and the smell, and the rotten flesh – that’s what it smelled like…and screams,” she explained. “After seeing the beauty of heaven, the contrast to seeing hell is almost unbearable.”
Detailing why she was taken there, Charlotte said: “And he says, ‘I show you this to tell you, if some of them do not change their ways, this is where they shall reside.’ I heard my father say, ‘You have time to go back and share’.”
She then described how she felt herself being ‘drawn back into’ her body, while Danny noticed her eye twitched.
Charlotte – who went on to make a full recovery and was released from hospital after two weeks – said: “I felt the pain, where I hadn’t felt pain, I felt the sorrow.”
Following her near-death experience, she decided to share her incredible story with others.
“People need hope,” Charlotte said. “They want to know that there really is something out there, they want to know that everything’s okay. Heaven is more than you can imagine.
“I can look you square in the eye and tell you for sure, heaven is real.”
According to The Ozark County Times, Charlotte passed away on November 28, 2023, at the age of 72 after suffering a heart attack. She was survived by her husband of 52 years and their daughter Chrystal, as well as her grandchildren.
Leave a Reply