Looking back, I think it was the first time without knowing it that I realized that as a mortal being I existed outside my physical self.

Similar insinuations were to continue through the rest of my mortality.

However, the significance of what can only be described as a spiritual visitation marked an incident that, even though empowering, wasn’t actually understood then or since.

I can recall the detail of the appearance. But for the life of me I cannot recall where on earth I was at the time of the extraordinary spiritual phenomena.

The British Seaman

As a twenty-something-year-old Liverpool seaman, the detail recalls that after being relieved of my two-hour stint on the ship’s wheel, I descended from the ship’s lonely wheelhouse to the vessel’s boat deck.

You cannot begin to describe the sense of isolation and loneliness of life aboard a ship as at 2 am your vessel makes its way slowly across the vast oceans that separate the earth’s continents.

A galactic experience

With only the empty ocean and galaxies for company, one could just as easily be a crew member on an interstellar spaceship.

Carefully stepping down yet another ladder, I finally reached the dimly lit seamen’s mess.  I would have the messroom to myself.

In one hour, I would relieve the lookout on the ship’s prow. Then at 4 am, we four seamen of the watch would return to our bunks for a well-earned slumber before the dawn broke the horizon.

A time for reflection

During his watch on the wheel or lookout and during the hour’s interlude, a seaman will reflect on life itself.

Whilst sitting at the messroom table clutching my coffee mug, I cannot recall thinking about anything in particular.

Alone in the messroom and undisturbed in the pervasive silence, I was overwhelmed by a crushing sense of aloneness and separation.

Oceans apart

To be honest, my thoughts were likely on more mundane things rather than my bittersweet romance with a teenage girl years previous.

At 22 years of age, I suppose that even then, Irene Sumner was only one of several following romances to follow; it’s life.

But the fair-haired green-eyed Irene had been the first for whom I had fallen in love and vowed eternal togetherness.

Alone with my thoughts in the solitude of the vastness of the ocean, I perhaps pondered Fate itself.

Irene Sumner was there

Relaxing with my back resting on the ship’s bare hull, I was unexpectedly overwhelmed by the presence of Irene Sumner. 

She, or rather her spirit, was there with me and just as present and real as I was. There were two of us in the crew’s messroom.

Not in physical form but in a sense of presence. No ghost, no apparition, no dream; Irene in all but physical form was with me in the ship’s messroom.

Was there a tangible presence?

Yes, but only her natural aromas, which overwhelmed my senses. Not the scent she habitually wore but her personal fragrances, which are as individual to a person as their fingerprints.

However, the sense of her presence was as real and as felt as if she was actually standing in front of me. Yes, Irene Sumner was there.

A revelation

I knew then that to be with someone, a physical presence is not necessary; a physical presence of someone is only an optional accessory

Was that the trigger? It may well have been, as throughout my life during similar moments of high-minded solitude I was yet to experience many more such visitations.

My purpose is to inform, not to convince

I cannot explain these apparitions; that is not my purpose. This is only to record them and to acknowledge them.

Otherwise, such visitations remain a source of mystery. Maybe the time will come when such things are better understood. But for now, they must remain a mystery. This is perhaps for the best.

Every song has a story behind it

This eerie experience was the genesis of the poem-ballad The Oldest Love Letter. Tell us what you think 

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