On the Edge of Death and A Promise Made to God
Editor’s note: Cheryl Landon shares candidly about her near death experience and her father’s promise to God.
As she slips deeper into the coma, her parents are outside ICU being told they need a miracle, their daughter will not make it through the night. Where do you go for a miracle? Her parents went to God in prayer. Now the father did something he claimed as, "His most important promise and he made it to God in exchange for his daughter's life." It was a promise for humankind. He promised he would dedicate all his work for the betterment of humankind if this God would allow his daughter to live. The father wasn't particularly religious, though Jewish, he had a strong spirituality, believing in a higher presence, God. He particularly believed in the power of love.
The father returns to the ICU, stands by his daughter's bedside and begins coaching her. "Fight, baby, fight." He held a 24 hour vigil standing by her bed intermittently with her mother, constantly coaching her, using his will to fight on her behalf for her life.
A nurse comes up to the father and tells him, "She can't hear you. She's in a deep coma." Despite his daughter's lack of response, he continues his fight coaching her, determined if there really is this powerful God of love, then surely God's love must be working His miracle in her. He must believe and have faith despite the fact there's no evidence.
On the third day, the young woman wakes up telling her parents how she heard her father while in the coma and calling her back. She recounts being in a world of no pain, extreme warmth, peace, unusual feeling of love surrounding her, and a man in white robes, comforting her. He was conversing with her and sent her back with a mission.
Once she had awakened, claims were made: "She's a miracle!" "God must have a special purpose for her!" "She's a Chosen One!" However, tragedies affect individuals differently with surprising results. This father had witnessed God in action! He had a promise to keep. The father went on to witness the power of love in our society, or lack of it, and how to turn everyday challenges into opportunities. He encouraged the "little man that the bigger bullies easily crushed " to stand up and be heard, without using violence. The father was determined to prove how love is the most powerful force in our universe. He stood up for the everyday voices, for bravery, belief in the greater good, and lastly, to bring out the greater good in each other. For us to simply follow: The Golden Rule: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." The father kept his promise to God.
The young woman went the opposite direction. She was haunted by reliving the nightmares; seeing the ghastly, gory sights from the car crash. Doctors had told her how she'd have to live in permanent, chronic pain. Most likely, crippled in a wheelchair; never to dance again, and how she loved to dance! However, the worst news was that her chances of bearing children were null. This was devastating. She had dreamt since a teenager to someday become a mother to a son. Being a mother having her boy was so important to her! Now all dashed because she chose to get into a car with a drunk driver instead of taking the bus.
The outcome of this "miracle, chosen one, special purpose" was betrayal and anger at a God who saved her life only to suffer the remaining years alone. Because who would want to marry a handicapped, barren woman destined to be crippled in a wheelchair suffering from chronic pain?
What man would even be attracted to her? Why did God save her life and take the others, she wondered? She believed the others were better off being dead than alive like her, destined for excruciating pain, handicapped; confined to a wheelchair, and loneliness. Mostly, what meaning did she gain experiencing another world that was so euphoric, while returning to this world only to face suffering and hardships! And, who REALLY was that man in the white robes comforting her; and, what meaning did he have in her life?
Her search began after she tried to end her life and run through a plate glass window. To pick up where this supposed loving God left off. God works in mysterious ways! At the time, a guardian angel was there to save her. Her uncle happened to be walking into the home when she had tried to run through the plate glass. He ran, grabbed her and held her down, both crying, until her parents arrived.
"The Truth Shall Set You Free". This is the motto of the therapeutic boarding school she was then sent to live for two years. The school was non religious, no medications allowed of any type, communal living and work situated in the San Bernardino Mountains. The residential campus was set deep in the forests of the majestic mountains. Once there, she committed to their rules and regulations. The young woman was stripped of all her monetary possessions, no makeup, no car, no designer clothes, even her long beautiful hair was cut off to her shoulders, marking the beginning step towards self discovery. These regulations were in place to focus on how our sense of security must not rest in our possessions, our image and status. Including generational or newly acquired material gains built upon layers of self importance and life going our way.
There was to be no contact with any prior friends. Her family had committed to remain in the agreement for the first three months of no communication. She was stripped of her old ways. Thus, began her transformation into enlightenment. Her journey was now sanctioned with the spiritual world, the discovery of her true self, and God through truth that sets us free.
The power of this motto is stripping away the dross built up over time, awareness of convoluted beliefs creating toxic behaviors, and began the process of renewal built upon trust in truth. The most powerful tool used in this residential campus was peer pressure. It was peer pressure that got her into these hardships, and it was peer pressure that revealed her lack of personal power in reverse. Yet, the same peer pressure showed how to discover one's personal power and live a deliberate, positive, quality life.
Thus, transformation and enlightenment replace defeating chaos and toxic confusion. It is the discovery of how to view trials as exercises designed to develop our trust muscles. These trust muscles define the character of who we are and become. It is the individual's belief system positively identifying life's challenges as opportunities shaping our lives vs. being powerless victims, acting off outdated, toxic beliefs. Discipline and taking responsibility for our choices using the code of truth through God's wisdom are key. This timeless, universal code is key for quality, family life that follows.
She discovers God! The discovery of God was in the middle of the stillness amongst the forest, one with nature's glory, alone. Yet, she wasn't really alone! It was in these mountains that all the missing pieces began to piece together her personal purpose shaping the mission that began with the man in the white robes. Together, the man in the white robes and she started to dream new dreams forming her true destiny.
That was fifty years ago. I, Cheryl Landon, am that 19 year old young student. My mother, Lynn, and father, Michael Landon are the parents who held the vigil at my bedside. It was my father who made the promise to God over my life.
My father kept his promise to God for my life by writing a universal message of spirituality into all his television stories. Dad's promise touched millions of lives. In every series he produced, including "Little House on the Prairie" and "Highway to Heaven", expressed the things Dad most deeply believed. In his words: "I believe in God, in family, in truth between people, and in the power of love. I believe we are created in God's image and there is God in all of us".
To be continued in the next newsletter “My promise to my Dad”