Best Self Magazine

Lessons from Beyond: How the Death of My Son Taught Me To Live

Lessons from beyond, death of my son, by Leo Galland, M.D., photograph of ballon by Bruno Ramos Lara
Photograph by Bruno Ramos Lara

When a doctor cannot logically explain the communication he receives from his son after his tragic death, he relearns how to live life

The death of my son, Christopher, at the age of 22, changed everything I thought I knew, in ways I never expected. Beyond my grief, came a glimpse of immortality that shattered my scientific, analytic view of the world.

Chris was a brain damaged, developmentally disabled child who challenged everyone he knew with his unpredictable behavior and uncanny insights. He drowned in a shallow stream bed while walking with friends along a trail in the Berkshire Mountains. As Chris underwent resuscitation in a local E.R., my wife, Christina, and I sat silently by the phone in Manhattan, waiting for news, immobilized by fear and the feeling of being powerless.

Suddenly, the room

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