Angel Flight

"The Dream"

By

Bonnie M. Wells

Date of Dream: August 11, 2008

Time of Dream: 11:15 a.m.

Dreamer: Bonnie M. Wells

An angel with long, flowing, dark hair was going to take me flying!

Although I have never flown, and have often vowed that I will never fly - going flying with an angel seemed to be perfectly alright with me.

Off to my left, and slightly north of where I was, stood a large building, which upon waking I recognized as our local Camden Clark Memorial Hospital.

In front of the hospital was my mother-in-law, Edna Wells, her daughter Linda Sheppard, and Edna's sister, Virginia Fields {Gin}.

Further away from the building, but still in front of it, sat my mother Stella Martin on a park bench under a large shade tree. At the end of the bench stood my cousin Mary Jo Gilliand.

I had apparently been visiting with all five people prior to the angel's arrival. Everyone seemed happy and in a good mood. My mother sat smiling, and yet there was a sadness to her also. Still, everyone seemed glad to see me, and I was glad to see them.

Off to my right, and east of where I was, stood a bridge. I don't recall seeing any water, but assume it was a bridge across a river. There was traffic coming and going from the bridge.

As I prepared to go flying with the angel, I was instructed to climb up three steps on a step ladder. This was to give me more altitude so our 'take off' would be better.

As I climbed the ladder, I turned and waved good-bye to everyone, and over my shoulder I instructed Linda to "take care of Aunt Gin," to which she replied she would.

END OF DREAM

FACTS:

My mother-in-law died of a heart attack in 1994:

My mother died of heart failure in 1996:

Aunt Gin died of cancer in 1996:

Mary Jo died of cancer in 2006. She had been a nurse at the hospital in my dream for 30 years prior to her death:

Linda died of cancer in 2008:

I reported my dream to my friend Sindee Davis and her mother Shirley the night of August 11, 2008: Sindee and I worked on it for an hour or so, trying to determine what it meant. I didn't feel it was symbolic. I was right. It was a warning dream or preminition dream.

In The News 24 Hours After My Dream:

Fiery Crash Kills Three On Angel Flight

An Angel Flight mercy mission to get a New York cancer patient to Boston for treatment ended tragically yesterday when a single-engine plane nosedived into an Easton strip mall parking lot and exploded in flames, killing all three aboard.

An air traffic controller who noticed the Beechcraft Bonanza G35 dipping and climbing erratically desperately warned the pilot to pull up.

“Angel Flight 1-5 Delta, altitude indicates 1,200. Low-altitude alert, climb immediately,” the controller said, according to the recorded exchange from LiveATC.net. “Angel Flight 1-5 Delta, climb immediately.” The pilot replied: “1-5 Delta climbing.”

The controller later instructed the pilot to maintain an altitude of 3,000 feet - but there was no response.

The Long Island patient, Robert Gregory, was headed to Dana-Farber Cancer Institute with his wife, Donna Gregory, aboard the aircraft piloted by Joe Baker, 65, of Brookfield, Conn.

The Riverhead, N.Y., couple, who were parents of 4-year-old twins, had departed on the flight from Westhampton Beach, N.Y., to Logan International Airport in Boston.

Donna Gregory’s mother told the Herald last night her 37-year-old daughter was accompanying Robert Gregory, 43, for a checkup of his cancer. He suffered from chronic lymphocytic leukemia, which his wife blogged about for HealthTalk.com.

His cancer was in remission, said Donna’s mother, Evelyn Gregor.

The flight was arranged by Angel Flight Northeast, a charity whose volunteer pilots transport medical patients at no cost.

“This is a horrible, unexpected loss,” Dana-Farber President Edward J. Benz Jr. said in a statement after the 10:15 a.m. crash.

Horrified witnesses watched as the plane fell from the sky and became engulfed in flames after crashing along the edge of a parking lot at Highlands Plaza mall on Robert Drive. They were powerless to help the victims, who officials said were killed on impact.

A preliminary investigation suggests there was “nothing wrong” with the plane, said Jim Peters, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman. But investigators have not yet concluded the crash cause.

The 52-year-old plane Baker was flying was owned by Brookfield, Conn., philanthropist Janet Keene, 69, a retired American Airlines [AMR] flight attendant. Keene told reporters the doomed plane, which was hangared at Sikorsky Memorial Airport in Bridgeport, Conn., was once owned by the son of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, California Congressman James Roosevelt, who died at age 83, 17 years ago today.

Its only history of service difficulty in the past 35 years on record with the FAA was a failure to drop its landing gear during touch-and-go landing practices in California on Jan. 9, 1985.

In a statement yesterday, Angel Flight Northeast spokeswoman Amy Camerlin said the North Andover-based not-for-profit has safely flown more than 53,000 children and adults on 30,000 flights over the past 12 years.

Nationally, however, yesterday’s accident was the third fatal crash in as many months for the Angel Flight network.

Bonnie M. Wells

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