Missouri Woman Dies, Goes to Heaven, and Comes Back with Mission to 'Bring Home as Many as We Can'

Charlotte Holmes is on a mission to tell everyone she knows about what she experienced the day she died and went to Heaven. 

It was an experience that changed her life forever.

Last September, she was admitted to Cox South Hospital in Springfield, Missouri after going in for a routine checkup with her cardiologist. 

While in the hospital, Charlotte suffered a stroke and died. 

"I came above my body and when I was above my body I looked down and...I could see 12 nurses. I could see the person on top of me doing chest compressions. I did not fear, I did not have any of that. I just felt contented. It was amazing," she told CBN News' The Prayer Link. 

She said what she heard and saw next was more beautiful than she ever imagined. 

"All of a sudden I opened my eyes and I knew, I knew I wasn't home," she explained. "I knew that I had gone to my heavenly home."

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"And almost immediately, from what I could tell, I heard music," Charlotte described. "I'd seen the trees, and the flowers and everything and it was swaying with the music... the praise of the angels and the people there." 

"I smelt the most beautiful flowers I have ever smelt in my life," she continued. "There's no flowers on this earth that smell like that."

Charlotte said she was standing at the "pearly gates" and she saw family and friends who had passed away. 

"There were so many more behind them, all my friends, all my family, the saints of old," she continued. "There's no words to express (it)."

"I looked and there stood my family. My mom, my dad, my sister, my best friend," she said. "They looked young. They didn't have glasses. My cousin that had had a leg cut off, had both legs. They looked like they were in their thirties."

Charlotte shared that she also saw a child there. 

"At the feet of my mom and dad was this toddler. I thought, 'who was that?' and I heard the voice. We all know it. We're Christians, we know God's voice and I heard Him say to me 'that's your child'."

Charlotte lost a baby boy, nearly 40 years ago, when she was 5.5 months pregnant. She said she battled depression because she was not able to say goodbye to her son. 

"Of course, back then, they didn't let you hold them. They didn't let you bury them... I didn't get to hold that child," she said. 

She told the Ozark County Times, "I couldn't wait to hold him. I had missed that."

Charlotte said at that moment she looked back and saw her family on earth and they were crying. 

"I said, 'but God I wanted to see my grandkids get married'. And all of a sudden God said, 'You have a choice. You can stay home or you can go back. But if you go back you must tell of this experience. You must bring home as many as you can'," she explained.

"He said, 'Soon and very soon I am coming to get my bride, the Church. You have not long to do your mission.' He said, 'I send you in My Name'."

Charlotte said she knew immediately that she needed to come back. She has since made it her mission to share her experience. 

"Heaven is more than what we even think. Heaven is more beautiful than what you can imagine. And, praise God, He's given us a chance to share our stories... to share God's love," she said. "We've got to bring home as many as we can."

This story was originally published on September 8, 2020.