Was a dying man pulled into hell?

Truth can be stranger than fiction

I grew up in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia in Botetourt County, where I heard many legends, folk tales, and ghost stories that people swore were true.

When I was in the eighth grade in junior high school, my younger middle brother Bill, was a sixth grader in elementary school. He told an amazing story one day that has come back to me often over the decades.

I shared this on three writing sites that are now long gone, so I share it here today. My brother told this tale in 1972, and he drowned in 1993. I never forgot and believe it bears repeating.

A concerned family

One of my sibling's classmates shared something pretty distressing one day during school. The nature of this story is not anything an eleven-year-old girl would want to happen to her grandpa so I believe it. In my opinion, if she had made up a lie it would have been more elaborate.

This young lady told Bill and a few other classmates that her grandfather was ill and in the hospital. He was a stubborn man and did not believe in God like the rest of the family. When doctors said they had done all they could for him, the relatives went to his hospital room. They began asking him if he would accept Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior, but he refused.

The grandfather had lived his entire life without believing in God, and his family were concerned about his soul. They did not want him to die and spend eternity in hell and they coveyed this to the dying man.

I have no idea how many opportunities this grandfather may have had in his life to accept Christ, but with a Christian family, he probably had heard the gospel but chose not to believe.

Dying a hard death

The granddaughter said that as her grandad's condition began taking a turn for the worse.he was moaning and groaning in agony.

The family knew his time was shor and began praying around his bed and again adking him tto repent of his sins and ask Jesus into his heart.

The grandfather was obviously between the realms of this world and the afterlife because he no longer addressed those who were in his room. He began screaming and begging for help.

The family members continued to tell him to call on Jesus, but he did not. Instead, he became frantic, shouting that his feet were burning and that "they" were pulling him into the fire.

He pleaded for someone to please pull him out of the burning fire. He continued saying “they” were pulling him and begging for help.

Was Satan waiting?

While rewriting this story, I thought of the scenes in the movie Ghost where the shadow beings grabbed the souls of the dead and dragged them presumably to hell.

I can only imagine this chaotic scene that was taking place in that hospital room. A loving family wants to see their father and grandfather in heaven and pleading with him to choose eternal life based on their faith beliefs.

He is now actively dying and continuing to say he is feeling the flames of hell, and thst “ they” (demons?) were tugging at his feet. This must have been horrific form him and those gathered by his bed.

The grandfather died in front of his loved ones while screaming for help. I cannot imagine how his family felt watching that scene or what emotions the young granddaughter was experiencing.

Perhaps some of you reading may have witnessed something similar. If so please comment below.