The Feeling

I was 16 at the time, I've always been able to feel ghosts, and partly see them, and even talk to them at times. I also have feelings every once in a while that something is wrong with someone close to me.

It was July 15th, 2002 and I was in Tennessee on a mission trip. Everything was going great and everyone was having a good time. But I remember a nagging feeling in the back of my head that I shouldn't be having a good time because my father had been sick for a while and I should be worried about him. I allowed myself to have fun due to the fact that my grades were close to failing due to the fact that my father was all I thought about. I had talked to him on the phone a couple days before I left, and he told me he was getting along great and feeling better everyday. So I went, we met everyone and hung out the night we got there, and the next day.
On the 16th I remember having a bad feeling about something, I figured that it was because I was never good at social gatherings so I was nervous because there were so many people. That night we all went to bed around midnight. I lay in bed for a while, not being able to sleep because my brain would not shut up. I finally fell asleep and later that night around 3:20am I sat up in bed I don't really remember sitting up I just woke up sitting up. I also remember having a weird (dare I say it?) feeling that someone or something was there watching me. I was in a bunk bed my best friend above me and there were also 4 other bunk beds there but no one was awake, I couldn't even hear any noises outside which was odd seeing that we were in the middle of the woods. I looked around for a few minutes hearing nothing and seeing nothing. But it was as if I could feel someone who I couldn't see breathing. After I was sure that this thing wasn't a threat I realized that I was at peace, that the thoughts I had had all day didn't bother me anymore. As if something was telling me that everything was okay and I no longer had any worries at all. I laid back down, fell asleep and fell back down but anyway, being a teenager I liked to sleep late and anyone who woke me before noon on a summer day usually got a hand in their face.
My youth leader woke me that morning and said that I had to come with her. I went with her and was told that I had a phone call. It was my aunt calling to tell me that my father had died the night before. She didn't know when or how but I was coming home the next day. I would not find out until years later that my sister and my brother had had the exact same experience that I had had that night.
We believe that even though we didn't see much of our father in our lives he still loved us so much that he stayed that extra moment after his death to say goodbye to all of us and to tell us again that day that he loved us.