Maybe you have experienced a loved one who is dying, talk to people who are not there at the bedside. Perhaps they are conversing with loved ones and long deceased relatives, angels, or beings of light. Or maybe your loved one has shared that they are getting ready to go on a trip, and asking you to gather some things for their travels.

I (Patty of the Death Chicks) watched my mom, as she was dying, talk animatedly to the ceiling up and to the right of her - gesturing, sometimes wildly with her hands. Every once in a while my mom would ask… “What is this place?” I knew she did not mean, the city, state and medical facility she was in. So I told her… “Physically Mom, you are on Earth, but I have a feeling you’ve been seeing glimpses of places to come—please, do tell me what you are seeing and experiencing—Inquiring minds want to know ;-)!”. A wry grin would widen across her face, as though it was a mystery (and she loved mysteries) that was playing out just for her—which I believe it was.

She offered some bits of what she was seeing. We cobbled it all together into an awe-inspiring last look into what was happening for her in the days and hours before she passed peacefully into the dusk that night. Although it was not without great great conversation or what seemed like negotiation with the other side!

The fascinating, the bizarre, the endearing, and sometimes confusing— Deathbed visions, and other pre-death phenomena are quite common. But what does it mean? What is happening?

Our guest this week can shed a light on this whole topic of the "Sign Posts of Dying". Martha Jo Atkins, PhD, is the author of the book by the same name - Sign Posts of the Dying, What You Need to Know. Martha came into the world being comfortable around death, dying, grief and loss. She held her first funeral for a little kitten, replete with a burial shroud, a cross made of sticks, and a ceremony at the age of 5.

Fast forward to today where her personal losses combined with her professional work, gives her a unique voice in the end of life community. She is the Executive Director of ABODE Contemplative Care for the Dying, (http://www.abodehome.org/) a home in San Antonio where individuals from the community come together to help dying people who have no one to care for them or no place to go.

Twenty years ago she founded the Children's Bereavement Center of South Texas. (http://cbcst.org/) She served as Executive Director there until 2005. A couple weeks after starting her PhD studies, her Mom was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer. She died in late January 2006. Her mom’s dying process included visions. She was able to talk to her about them and see the peacefulness on her face as she shared what she saw. These events and her dying process changed Martha’s life again.

After her Mom died, she got wildly interested in deathbed phenomenon. Her research now is on the trajectory of dying; the sights, sounds, experiences, and language the dying use as they are taking their leave.