Writing in 1918, James H. Martineau recalled a vision he had of a then-deceased son from 1915:
In 1915, one evening I suddenly
awoke at 3 a.m. and as I lay reading in bed I felt a strange sensation +
plainly saw abut an inch of thumb + fore finger which turned out the light + I
said “wait is all this?” A voice answered “I am your son John Wm Don’t you
remember your little Johnny who died so long ago” [He died in 1863 at the age
of 5 years.] He said “I came to visit you first, because I died first. Della
was come next, because shed died next to me.” He told me much that would
happen, much of which I have forgotten, which I should of written. But he said
as I well remember that mother should live to be eighty-three + should die in
peace without any pin, which she did, + that I should live twenty years longer
+ should die in smoke, but without pain. I said, “Will I burn?” He said “No,
you’’ll die just as if asleep.” Then he said, “I must go now” + I again saw his
thumb + finger ^seize+^ turn on the switch of the lamp re-lighting it. (James
H. Martineau, Journal, c. 1918, in Useful to the Church and Kingdom: The
Journals of James H. Martineau, Pioneer and Patriarch, 1850-1918, ed. Noel
A. Carmack and Charles M. Hatch, 2 vols. [Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2023],
2:1262-63)
