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(Date Posted:09/22/2007 6:01 AM)
Ann's question about the Eastland in her quiz about Chicago, reminded me of a dream I hada fewyears ago. I'dsavediton a diskat the time, and here is exactly what I wrote.I have a lot of odd, I'll call them 'dreams'. Most of them involve me being in a classroom or elseworking in a hospital helping people to heal emotional issues, but this 'dream'was on a different level, even for me. I have many 'dreams' where I have been doing some sort of helping people, and I usually wake up in the morning feeling more tired than when I wentto bed.Having said that, this 'dream'felt SO real I woke up even more physically (and emotionally) exhausted than my usual 'dreams'. I 'dreamt' that I was standing on an old iron bridge overlooking a ship that had capsized. It was laying on its side and took up about half of the channel that it was resting in. There were hundreds of bodies floating everywhere. There were buildings on either side of the channel, so it appears to have happened in a city. There was also people scrambling to help the people in the water. There was a tug steaming over to help also. Intuitively, I 'knew' that my job was to help those that had died to come to grips with what had happened so that they would be able to 'cross over'. I would go down into the water and find people (souls?) who had died yet were frightened and confused and were still down in the ship and bring them up to the bridge to help them understand. I remember passing through one compartment where there was a young woman of about 17 who was still physically alive but her compartment was rapidly filling with water. I desperately wanted to stop and try and help her but was forcefully told by the voice of someone I could not see that was not my job and that I could not help her yet. So as difficult as it was, I moved on and found someone I could help. I crossed over a lot of young women that day. As I recall, most of the people I helped were younger females.One of the most vivid memories I have is of having what amounted to an argument with a man who refused to believe that he was dead. I remember as I was arguing, looking over and seeing people walking (and slipping) on the side of the ship. They brought in equipment to try and cut the hull but it was too late. I finally had to take this man back to see his body before he would begin to accept what had happened. He didn't take it well. Some of the others were very philosophical about it. They recognized that they would see their 'families' soon enough.One thing I haven't mentioned till now is how everyone was dressed. They were all dressed in very old fashioned clothes. The man I was arguing with was wearing a bowler hat and a brown suit, with a bow tie. I remember towards the end of the dream thinking how familiar it all looked. It reminded me quite a bit of what I had read about the Eastland disaster. It was a ship that capsized in the Chicago river. I looked up the Eastland this morning and almost had a heart attack. A few of the photographs I saw showed the same scene I had witnessed in my dream. I have to wonder now if it was really a dream or exactly what it was. All I can say is that if the real Eastland disaster was as horrific as my dream, I would not wish the experience on anyone. It was bad, very bad. I suppose I should look for the silver lining. As difficult as the dream was for me, at least I was doing something to help the people who were there.
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