Peace

By Elizabeth Howard

Peace is an extraordinary account of survival beyond death. It is a story inspired by true events. Whilst sitting in a bar I overheard fragments of a mesmerizing reminiscence. "I was on holiday in northern France near the town of Amiens when I suddenly turned a corner and came face to face with myself. This self though was dressed in a soldier's uniform from the last century."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Elizabeth Howard
• Release date: Apr 14, 2016
• ISBN: 9781310865343

Elizabeth Howard

Elizabeth Howard is a teacher and a medium. She has written four books and has 30,000 downloads on her first book, "Easy Answers for Life". Her books feature true stories taken from real life but with a supernatural twist interwoven into the tale.

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Peace

E.L. Howard

Inspired by true events

Peace Table of Contents

Chapters

Introduction

One My story begins

Two My early life

Three Off to war in 1915

Four The battle at five am

Five Knowing the future

Six Looking back over my short life

Seven The call finally comes

Eight My next life begins in 1983

Nine I meet my wife

Ten This life starts to unravel

Eleven We go on holidays to France

Twelve Enjoying life

Thirteen Trip to the Somme

Fourteen I walked around the corner and saw myself

Fifteen Life in the army at Amiens

Sixteen The sufferings of the past

Seventeen Life in the trenches

Eighteen My death

Nineteen I awake from death

Twenty At the hospital

Twenty Life realizations/

One The facts of life

Introduction

Today is the last day of my life.

The difference between me and many on the brink of life and death is that I know it. I’ve connected to the energy source and understand that this is my choice.

Life has passed very quickly for me as even now I’m barely an adult. But I’ve experienced more in this short time than most would in a much longer life.

I’ve felt gratitude in my early life and now pain and suffering. I’ve been shown my impending death but also the continuity of life.

I’ll die in the next few hours. My body will be left in a field to rot, but my true self will choose to return here in nearly 100 years time.

Really I can never die. My body yes but my essence of spirit lives on forever.

Knowing this has made me go to my death feeling uplifted. Really I’m just escaping the mud, the cold and problems of this world.

Don’t grieve for me as I’ll sleep with a happy heart.

Chapter One

My story begins

I’m standing on the abyss, about to die. I don’t want to but have no choice. I can’t fight the inevitable, so just have to go with the flow. At least I’ll escape this wretched situation.

The year is 1915 and the war to end all wars has begun. I joined early excited by the prospect of defending my country whilst having a grand adventure. I had never left home before and was really leading an aimless life. I was working and living with my family, had a girlfriend and most would have said a happy life. But I wanted more. What was life without excitement tinged with a good helping of fear?

The posters to join were inspiring and all the young men in my town seemed to be at the recruitment office. We were all champing at the bit to leave home and be off to distant shores. The mood was catchy and if anyone failed the medical the disappointment was huge. I passed along with most of us young men and was to join my regiment for training the very next weekend.

I could hardly wait. The womenfolk were all pessimistic but no way could anyone stop us. To be in my new uniform and training with the rest of my troop was the best. Up at five, nothing could be better. Exercising all day and mucking together in bunks was just what the doctor ordered for my life. After weeks of this strict regime we all felt ready and eager to be off. We were trained to overcome anyone who opposed us. We were strong and young and nothing could stand in our way.

But this limitless enthusiasm didn’t last for long. As soon as we saw what was in front of us and the reality of the trenches and front line, we realized what minimal training we had had to prepare ourselves to be posted to the Western Front. This stark reality was to prove shattering.

Looking back to our enthusiasm at the start of this war and the reality now was just overwhelming.

After months in these trenches and especially now its winter, I’m shivering with cold and my feet are slimy, covered in the mud that we’re been sitting in for what seems an eternity. I can’t calculate exactly how long, as here time stands still.

I know I’m only 20 years old, but I seem to have been here forever. I only joined the army last year and have ended up near the front quite quickly. I can understand why. Nobody lasts long here. You either die of disease or a bullet. Life doesn’t mean a thing. You’re wholly expendable and live only a couple of short weeks if you’re lucky.

When I first signed up to do my patriotic duty, everyone said the war would only last until Christmas. We’d defeat the enemy in a few months and push them back inside their borders. It would be easy and a grand life experience. Everyone was enthusiastic and high-spirited. We all marched off eager to participate, looking good in our uniforms and being admired by women from afar. I felt so good and everyone was so proud and encouraging.

My father said to me, Jack my boy, mother and I know how well you’ll do. We’re with you and will bask in your reflected glory. Nothing could feel better.

So off I went full of fight, eager to do my best. Hoping to make my family and country proud and wanting to prove myself.

But as soon as I arrived, the bleakness started to leech into my soul. Everything was perpetually soaked including your boots. The landscape should have been white with all the snow that was continuously falling, but was scarred by the churned up soil caused by bombardment from both sides.

Rocks, bits of forest, the crumbling remains of houses all littered the white landscape. These and the huge holes blasted by the cannons were all eventually re-covered. It just took a while. Even the dead bodies were finally buried under snow. It was just a problem when the thaw started.

That’s when the smell took over. The stench of rotting flesh was even worse than the smell of gunpowder that continuously filled the air. Until we were all granted time to bury our dead, we had to improvise masks to cover our faces. When the wind blew our way you nearly choked