‘My dead brother saved me from crashing car – there’s no way else to explain it’

One woman who says she’s never been religious or spiritual[1] says she believes her late brother may have saved her from a car crash[2]. Amanda Prowse[3], 56, has always been content in her belief that when people die, that’s their end. “I’m very practical and logical in the way I look at the world[4]. I think we’re like plants,” she said, “we live and then we die, our bodies go into the ground and we become part of the earth.”

However, when her younger brother Simon died suddenly, the aftermath changed her perception leaving her unable to explain what happened in any other way. Speaking exclusively to the Mirror[5], Amanda recalled that fateful day in September 2022. She said: “When my husband Simeon called to say Simon had had a heart attack[6], I was really confused.

I thought he was mistaken and meant my dad because he’d had heart surgery a year or so before. I couldn’t fathom it. ‘I’ve seen supernatural things as hospice nurse – dying man did the impossible’[7]

She says Simon’s death was such a shock because he was active and healthy (Amanda Prowse)

“Simon was always so fit and healthy.

We always described him as invincible. He loved being active. He didn’t smoke, and he was always out and about walking and hiking.

He was only 50.” Amanda says she knew he had died when she asked her husband which hospital[8] he was being taken to and he replied saying that he was in the “best possible hands”. She said: “I knew as he said that Simon had died. Otherwise, he would have told me where to go to be with him.

The ambulance arrived in minutes and the paramedics tried everything they could. There was even a heart surgeon and a heart specialist with them who had come along after hearing the news. If there was anything that could have saved him they would have done it.”

Stunned by the news, Amanda could only think of getting to her family. She went on: “It was like the world turned in slow motion. My legs felt like they didn’t belong to me.

I’m the oldest, I knew my mum and dad, and Simon’s daughter Amelie would need me to be there.” The problem was that Amanda was in Ilfracombe, North Devon, and had to drive over 100 miles to Bristol. She said: “I got in the car and I just thought, I don’t know if I can do this.

I was in shock, I knew it wasn’t safe to drive feeling such overwhelming grief but I had to get to them. It was so dark and drizzly. It was such rubbish weather[9].”

That was when Amanda caught sight of a strange orange light in the sky, visible in the top corner of her windscreen. She said: “It was like a spark, like a firework. I didn’t even question it.

I just thought ‘OK’. When I looked at it, it gave me strength. It made me calm.

I was trembling but every time I felt like I couldn’t do it, I looked at the light and it comforted me.”

Amanda could only think of getting back to support her family following Simon’s sudden death (Amanda Prowse)

However, that was only the beginning of Amanda’s strange journey. After driving for almost an hour and a half she discovered the only road to the motorway was blocked off after a car had driven off a cliff. Police had taped off the area and were turning people around.

She said: “I hadn’t cried yet at that point but I burst into tears at the frustration of it all and feeling so panicked. I begged the police officer to let me pass but he refused. Then another man came over, he had a helmet on, I’m not sure if he was police or a firefighter.

He lifted up his visor and told me ‘do it for Josh, go steady…’ It was bizarre. My son is called Josh, how could he have known that I needed to hear those words to calm myself?” Amanda says that the orange spark appeared to glow brighter at this and she continued on her journey.

She went on: “That light shone all the way home and I kept looking at it, and I spoke to Simon. I told him I would look after my niece, that I would look after my parents, and that we would all be okay. I had moments of almost euphoria where I would recall funny and lovely memories.

It was just bizarre. It didn’t move. It didn’t dim.”

When Amanda pulled into the driveway of her family’s home, she said she looked up at the light and it dimmed and went out. She finished: “I feel it brought me safely home. I just can’t explain it.

I don’t know what it was. I think about it a lot.”

She says Simon had the ‘best’ weekend before he died, which brings her peace (Amanda Prowse)

After several days of being overwhelmed with grief and all the paperwork that comes when someone dies, Amanda says she almost forgot about her otherworldly journey. However, when she mentioned it to her other brother Paul, he revealed he’d had a similar experience at the same time as he was driving.

Amanda said: “I think when we’re grieving[10] we look for coincidences to help us. Like seeing a robin, or a white feather and instantly assuming that it’s a sign from above. But I can’t explain that small orange spark that day.

It was with me the whole way home and only went when I was safe. It brings me peace and great comfort. “We’re all just energy at the end of the day if there’s a window that day that Simon looked through to help me.

We just don’t know. The experience has definitely made me question, and less fearful of death. The only people who are suffering post-losing Simon is us.

It isn’t Simon. He had the best weekend before he died, he saw his friends, his family, his daughter. He had five wonderful decades of life, which is a lot more than some people get.”

Amanda, a best-selling author[11], used her grief and channelled it into her latest book, Swimming to Lundy[12]. The novel[13], about how it’s never too late to follow your dreams and find your way back to happiness after tragedy, is out now. Do you have a story to share?

Email [email protected][14]

References

1. ^ spiritual (www.mirror.co.uk)
2. ^ car crash (www.mirror.co.uk)
3. ^ Amanda Prowse (www.instagram.com)
4. ^ world (www.mirror.co.uk)
5. ^ Mirror (www.mirror.co.uk)
6. ^ heart attack (www.mirror.co.uk)
7. ^ ‘I’ve seen supernatural things as hospice nurse – dying man did the impossible’ (www.mirror.co.uk)
8. ^ hospital (www.mirror.co.uk)
9. ^ weather (www.mirror.co.uk)
10. ^ grieving (www.mirror.co.uk)
11. ^ best-selling author (www.amandaprowse.com)
12. ^ Swimming to Lundy (go.skimresources.com)
13. ^ novel (bit.ly)
14. ^ [email protected] (www.mirror.co.uk)