title: The Day I Died: Remarkable True Stories of Near-Death Experience
author:  Tammy Cohen 
description: Tammy Cohen has written for national newspapers and magazines for over fifteen years. Specialising in real-life human interest stories, relationship, psychology and parenting features, she currently writes for Cosmopolitan and Family Circle. She lives in Spain with her three children.
zlib_text: > Chapter one
  
    
  
  The worst day of my life had come on a warm day at the end of April, it was
  exactly the kind of day I usually loved. The sun was shining and there was a
  slight breeze in the air that meant it didn’t feel too hot. I’d always loved
  spring, it was the start of life with new flowers blooming and animals being
  born. We’d always taken a trip to a farm every year since I was young because
  it was always my favourite time to go, my favourite family tradition. There
  would be no trip this year though instead, I sat in a hospital, next to a bed
  where the ghost of my mother lay dying. She hadn’t been my mum these past few
  months but it still hurt to see her, laying there frail and skin so thin and
  white it was like it was see-through. You could see every bone in her face, I
  held onto her hand trying not to squeeze too tightly in fear I might break her
  bony fingers. Her eyes were shut and we’d already been told she wouldn’t wake
  again, she’d been taken off the machines and all tha