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"QUANTUM SHOT" #270
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"I Told You So" will be just too cruel thing to say

When we reflect upon the horrendous events of 9-11, we can't help but stumble upon different premonitions and uncanny coincidences that took place BEFORE any of this had happened. This article is an attempt to collect together all such instances of unintentional insight and creepy prediction.

We'll start with the most incredible of them all, courtesy U.S. Mail Service:



An ad from Pakistan (!) Airlines, printed in 1979:


(image credit: Pristina)

World Trade Center brochure, 1984:


(image credit: hipsteria.com)

An example of really bad timing:


(image credit: Emily Paup)

We linked once to this book cover already: amazingly, science fiction became a terrible fact on this occasion: "Year's Best Science Fiction #2", ed. by Gardner Dozois, art by Thomas Kidd... (courtesy kdecay)



Domed Manhattan is nothing new, but WTC is definitely in trouble:



What exactly hits the towers? This page from a very famous Spanish comic named "Mortadelo y Filemon" shows it without any doubt... It originally appeared in 1993.


(sent in by Tony, from Valls)

Another comic, appeared in 1984, see here.





Fragment of a fantasy painting by Boris Vallejo, 1997:



These Trading Cards (INWO by Steve Jackson games) were printed in 1993/1994:




Eerie Russian ad, which appeared in the issue of "Renovations & Interior Decorating" magazine on the week of 3-9 September, 2001 (!!!!)
(it basically says that the company makes the original designs, not the copies of existing skyscrapers) - via




The following ad probably dates back to the early 1970's. Found by by Eric Luttrell, who writes: "Apparently the builders were banned at one point for using any more asbestos in the WTC after 1971. Per the entry on Wikipedia: "Asbestos was used in the first 40 floors of the World Trade Towers and ended up contaminating the air around lower Manhattan after the towers collapsed. Steven Milloy suggests that the World Trade Center towers could still be standing or at least would have stood longer had a 1971 ban not stopped the completion of the asbestos coating above the 64th floor."




Also, as a part of "Low-flying Aircraft" collection of vintage float pens, we have one where the plane literally flies into WTC: (send in by David Fogg)






Unfortunate coffee mug:


(image credit: Capo2)

General Electric advertisement for a fridge (2000):



"The Coup" CD, created before 9-11



"Tom Clancy wrote two bestselling thrillers about a pilot deliberately flying a fuel-laden jet into the Capitol building and killing the President and top leadership (Debt of Honor, 1994; Executive Orders, 1996)" - More here.

Comic heroes had their share of unfortunate WTC references:

Spiderman, 1991:


Wonder Woman actually flies her plane into WTC:



And Optimus Prime hangs between the destroyed towers in the old "Transformers" comic:



Sesame Street monster on a rampage:


All of these, of course, occurred unintentionally, but there were pictures that photographers took on purpose, having some strangely powerful premonitions of the event. Here is the image Chris McKinstry took in 2000, while having a thought that something like this may happen:



Read a sad account of Chris McKinstry life and death here...

A couple of pictures in memory of WTC:


(image credit: Stefano)

"An impossible vista, now"


(image credit: Chris McKinstry)

There was "Faith before they fell"
(that church got destroyed,too) -


(image credit: Gary H. Spielvogel)

There is still faith, after.

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YOUR COMMENTS::

58 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Avi, you have used numerous times Mrbabyman to digg you stories & failed miserable. Now you want to cash on the sentiments of the people by using events of 9-11 & I should appreciate the timing of your post & choice of your digger. Shame on you & how can you call yourself a blogger? Just to make a quick buck, want to divert traffic from digg to your senseless post? Avoid such cheap gimmicks!

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Anonymous Anonymous said...

I don't think that is what he is trying to do. Almost every website today is commemorating 9/11, is he not allowed to? It would be kinda silly if he posted this blog a fews from now while everyone else is talking about it today!

Avi, I recently stumbled upon your website, and to be honest I think it is a great website/blog. Keep up the good work...and forget about the critics. You can never make EVERYONE happy.

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Anonymous Anonymous said...

Here's another one: www.geheimgemein.de/gallery/combined.jpg

These Trading Cards (INWO by Steve Jackson games) were printed in 1993/1994

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Blogger andkorn said...

"how can you call yourself a blogger?"

As if being a blogger is some kind of honor. Big deal - you sign up for a free account and write about whatever pops into your head.

At least Avi is doing something useful with his blog - entertaining us. Where else would I get my updates on weird happenings and inventions?

Other bloggers post daily updates about how someone gave them 2 sugars instead of 3 in their coffee, taking up useful disk space and bandwidth. Avi, keep up the good work, you have one of the most useful blogs out there.

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Anonymous Anonymous said...

I liked the stamp and the pakistan ad (weird).

I have the same WTC brochure from 1984 in my house and thought the same thing.

Nice work

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Blogger kablammeaux said...

Check out "Divided We Stand: A Biography of New York's World Trade Center," which was published in January of 2001:

link to amazon page

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Anonymous Anonymous said...

you forget this spanish comic from 1984

http://predicadormalvado.blogspot.com/2007/09/rebelde.html

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Anonymous Anonymous said...

sorry:::

http://predicadormalvado.blogspot.com/2007/09/rebelde.html

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Blogger Avi Abrams said...

MrBabyMan submits to digg on his own. ...as do dozens of others who like our articles. We don't rely on Digg traffic.

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Anonymous Anonymous said...

Distasteful in my opinion especially for 9/11. A tribute in pictures would have been better if you wanted to touch an such a topic.

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Anonymous Anonymous said...

I call bullshit on the stamp.
The US Postal Service has never issued a stamp like that.
It's a clever photoshop.
Notice the bottom is cut off where the caption/denomination of the stamp would be.
The postmark doesn't look correct either.

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Anonymous Anonymous said...

Did not see the movie but apparently Super Mario Bros movie had a scene showing one or both of the buildings damaged.

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Anonymous Anonymous said...

IMHO that was a mistake

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Anonymous Anonymous said...

Screw the people that think this was inappropriate.

EVERYONE else has enough coverage of the day, this was a little different, and I liked it.

Go watch CNN if you feel like weeping...

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Blogger Telecomedian said...

Hey folks, you do realize that the internet is just like the TV or radio? If you don't like it, don't read it.

I think this was a fascinating subject, especially how the Twin Towers seemed to be a really popular symbol of the U.S. overseas, perhaps moreso than it was in the U.S. itself.

It's been six years. There's only so many tears than can be shed in that time.

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Anonymous Anonymous said...

Who are these people who come on this blog and say "I find this distasteful." Are friggin nuts? Have you ever seen what ELSE is out there that the majority of sane people actually find distasteful?

I was in NY on 9/11 and my wife was one of those people who ran from the towers. There is NOTHING offensive or distasteful about this post.

SHAME SHAME shame on you people who judge. You need a reality check.

Critics tend not have the ability to think for themselves.

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Anonymous Anonymous said...

And in other media we have the pilot episode of the "X-Files" spin-off series "The Lone Gunmen" in which there is a plot to crash a passenger jet into the WTC in order to justify a foreign war.

(The conspiracy nuts have been having fits over this one)

Chilling...

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Blogger Unknown said...

There is also a children's book about flying a 747, the title of which escapes me at the moment. One page shows the view of the WTC from the cockpit. I don't know when the book was printed; probably late 80s/early 90s.

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Anonymous Anonymous said...

There's a New Yorker cover that has two seagulls flying towards the Twin Towers. I'm sure it's laying around here somewhere...

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Anonymous Anonymous said...

Speaking of 9/11 coincidences, the WTC attack was actually the second time in 2001 when Muslim radicals destroyed two towering structures before an outraged world.

Remember the giant stone Buddhas of Bamiyan, Afghanistan, laid low by the Taliban a few months before September 11th?

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Anonymous Anonymous said...

That's not Optimus Prime, it's Rodimus Prime.

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Anonymous Anonymous said...

This guy really predicted the attacks . He´s name is Benjamin Solari Parravicini, he´s argentinian and take a look what he has drawn http://www.losenigmas.com.ar/images/bspwtc.jpg

the text says "The North American freedom will lost his light, its torch will no longer be lighter like yesterday, and the monument will be attacked twice" ... scary!

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Blogger Avi Abrams said...

re: Benjamin Solari Parravicini

Wow, I gotta read up on this... quite a prophetic picture, drawn in 1939, before towers were even built!

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Blogger tinch said...

Noone says anything about the Lone Gunmen pilot premiered months before the attack. In that story the heroes saved the two towers from the attack of a plane organized by the government.

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Blogger B. Durbin said...

Dream Theater also had a cover depicting New York (and the WTC) in flames*— released on September 11th, 2001. They recalled it and issued new artwork but my husband has a copy of the original cover because he had been eagerly awaiting the album. (The image is at the bottom of the page.)

*One of the band's recurring symbols is a flaming heart in barbed wire— they'd just added the NY skyline to that image.

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Anonymous Anonymous said...

Great post. Don't listen to the fool who believes you're "disgracing" the "blogosphere." They sounded bitter to me!

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Anonymous Anonymous said...

Don't forget the movie "Escape From New York," which starts when terrorists hijack Air Force One and crash it into a Manhattan skyscraper. I'd say that gave the terrorists some ideas.

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Anonymous Anonymous said...

http://wiki.hehz.net/images/0/0d/Nojoo.jpg

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Anonymous Anonymous said...

There is an opinion, that 9/11 - a handwork of masons. And thus they warned each other. Marasm? May be... May be..

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Anonymous Anonymous said...

I pretty much liked the "Asbestos Poster".
But don't make the mistake to think about how asbestos was going to save the WTC on 9/11,
The thermite and C4 explosives used to bring down the three world trade center buildings were placed with surgical precision.No one could of save these poor souls...

May they rest in peace...

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Anonymous Anonymous said...

On Sept. 11, Jackie Chan was supposedly about to start filming a movie at the World Trade Center where he fights terrorists who want to blow it up. See
http://www.snopes.com/rumors/jackchan.htm

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Anonymous Anonymous said...

There's also a painting by Alex Grey (Fans of the music group, Tool, will know who he is), entitled Gaia, depicting two planes flying towards two towers while Bush Sr., Saddam Hussein and a phallic looking demon-creature are walking together, arm-in-arm in the foreground. Its nearly impossible to see the detail from the image on his site (http://www.alexgrey.com/), but if anyone wants to see it, up-close, there's a video about it on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08R8tgvXa7o

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Anonymous Anonymous said...

Don't forget the Hardy Boys mystery
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c343/urbanesmala/1184477567682.jpg

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Anonymous Anonymous said...

Makes you wonder.. At the risk of getting flamed here. I dont really think the U.S. did not know this was going to happen and I also think that the U.S Big wigs were behind it in some way.
You see how most of our so called presidents love to play war games.

I was in the Military/ I know the bull shit that gets fed to the public and what really goes on behind closed doors.

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Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi, I would like to tell you something that happend to me, I had a dream about the twin towers and a huge explosion about a week before it happend. My dream was strange to me, and at that time I did not understande it, I had never seen or even thought about the twin toweres so you can understande the shock I felt the day I heard the news on the radio, about 9 11, in my dream there were two very large buildings side by side one had a purple light around it and the other a green light, ( that part about the colores I still do not understande.)
anyway I was standing out side with the towers in plane view, suddanly there was a huge explosion (I did not see the plane in my dream thou) however after they explosion there was dabree and ash flying ever were.
There may be people who do not beleve what I have written however
this is they hounest truth.
I Wish this had not come to pass
and to all those who lost someone in this terrible event, I am truly sorry for your loss pain and suffering it has brought.

kay.

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Blogger Avi Abrams said...

Kay, that's pretty fascinating

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Anonymous Anonymous said...

In early 2001 I was designing a computer simulation of a tensegrity model where you could build a structure and test it's strength, and one of the ideas was to test the strength of the model by flying aeroplanes of varying sizes into it (inspired by a game called BridgeBuilder where you test the strength of a bridge by driving a train across it). On the splash screen of this game would have been an illustration of the B-25 bomber that crashed in to the Empire State Building in 1945.

I was distracted by other projects so I never completed it (thankfully!) but on September 11th 2001 the friend who I had been discussing this idea with phoned me up to say "Remember that building simulation game we were discussing earlier this year? Turn on the telly!"

I turned on the television to see a replay of the second plane hitting the South Tower. My immediate thought was "That was my idea! Bastards got there before me!" before the horror of it all sunk in.

Premonition? I don't know - certainly not a supernatural freaky one. There was a lot of anxiety about working in skyscrapers and terrorist attacks - a friend of my mother's had warned her son not to accept a job in the Canary Wharf Tower, London, because the West had made a lot of enemies and tall buildings were vulnerable to attack. That fear was certainly around before the events of 9/11.

My idea, strangely enough, is still on the back burner...

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Blogger johnald said...

Alex Grey's Gaia painting is the best 9/11 premonition pic out there, add that / check it out!!!

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Anonymous Anonymous said...

I felt this was a notable reference as well

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spider-Man_%28film%29#Release

You may remember the original Spider-Man trailer.

By the way, it baffles me that this entry doesn't have more comments. I find it while very disturbing, of much interest.

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Blogger Avi Abrams said...

thank you floacist, great tip... I saw this trailer in theaters

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Anonymous Anonymous said...

One thing not mentioned here is the album cover of the Cassandra Complex' 1988 album "Theomania". What's in a (band's) name…

http://www.discogs.com/viewimages?release=164235

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Anonymous Anonymous said...

so good.

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Anonymous CB said...

Around the time of the attacks, a German DIY store chain ran a billboard campaign which showed the glass-roofed shopping arcade (destroyed in the attacks) near the World Trade Center and the bases of the towers. Oddly enough, the slogan of the campaign was "Lamps make every space beautiful".

One of the billboards was left up for several months after September 2001. They probably forgot to remove it.

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Blogger Scott Radtke said...

Dom DeLillo's Underworld had an interesting cover

http://www.amazon.com/Underworld-Novel-Don-DeLillo/dp/0684848155/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1243389103&sr=8-2

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Blogger Frederick said...

Don't forget the King Kong remake poster,whic had the big guy straddling the two towers ,or "Godzilla vs Magalon," the poster for which had them battling atop them. I was amazed at Chris Carter's series "The Lone Gunman," which had as a plot, a government faction remotely controlling a plane to crash into the towers in order to start a war with the terrorist countries, for weapsons sales.

Those towers were fated for destruction.

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Blogger izzit said...

It is eerie - but not surprising.
I don't know if people born after 1990 will understand just how tall the WTC towers were.
The architecture was an act of hubris on the skyline, accentuated by the total lack of any soaring feeling in those two shoeboxes, combined with an impersonal, empty plaza.
They were not far from being the tallest buildings in the world, and when I visited as a kid, I had a sense of unease, like a human shouldn't be up there.
This made it startling when, the last time I saw the WTC, I had a feeling I should go there. I was only in NYC for a few hours, but I inexplicably felt the urge to get off at the station below, for no good reason. I hated the building but found myself arguing why not to get out and look up. I stayed on the train. That was in August 2001.

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Blogger izzit said...

Though logically it should be noted that in 1945 a small plane did crash into the Empire State building and took out a big chunk (but not structural), and that probably inspired a lot of renderings and speculations about what might happen with a bigger plane or a taller building.
Also the Towering Inferno was a popular movie when the WTC towers were built, reinforcing the idea that it might be possible to build too high.
That, and it was a landmark, especially shortly after it was built - King Kong or Planet of the Apes would probably seem less unlikely and eerie.

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Blogger MrBugz94 said...

you forgot the guy in the matrix, movie was made in 1999 or something and his id birthdate said sep 11, 2001

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Blogger Unknown said...

It deserves note that on the postage stamp the date is March 11 -- the same date as the Japanese Earthquake/Tsunami/Nuclear Disaster.

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Blogger Chris Sobieniak said...

There was a student animated film from CalArts made in the 80's that had a UFO crash into one of the towers as well, though thankfully it didn't fall down that time.

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Blogger Chris Sobieniak said...

Although unrelated to planes, there was the US theatrical poster to "Godzilla Vs. Megalon" that had both characters fighting on top of the towers as well.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4b/Godzilla-megalon-us.jpg/200px-Godzilla-megalon-us.jpg

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Anonymous Anonymous said...

To all the people who find this thread distasteful: you are a bunch of IDIOTS! I'll tell you what is distasteful - people on youtube posting videos of phone calls from victims inside the World Trade Center as the building collapses. Listening to peoples screams as they fall to their deaths is sickening, to put it mildly, and they should be removed every one. The adverts listed here are simply using old commercials and showing us them in the context of what happaned. Nothing wrong with that, at all.

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Anonymous Anonymous said...

We are reminded that at the time of these terrible events, the political leaders entrusted with protecting the people from such events said, "who could have imagined such attacks".

The side of politics governing at the time has a defining characteristic of lack of imagination.

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Anonymous Anonymous said...

The punk band Leftover Crack coincidentally released their first album on September 11, 2001. On the album, one of the tracks features the lyrics:

'When the greed of man is not appeased
All will rot sick and diseased
Once again the fallen towers
The Tortured death of every hour
And at the toll of the final bell
You lead the righteous down to hell
When all the world is dead and gone
All I ask is bring me along!"

Pretty weird that a song with those lyrics was released the same day the Towers went down.

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Anonymous Anonymous said...

I would exempt the wonder woman part from 9-11. That one's not really much different than the B-52 that crashed into the Empire State Building (I would think the WTC wouldn't have fared any worse in that case). The 9-11 attack was exceptional in that it was a commercial airliner with a large amount of jet fuel to fuel the fire.

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Anonymous Anonymous said...

My uncle was an nyc fireman. He also did roofing and go construction on side. I had been working with him when home from college and that September because I just graduated. The Sunday sept.9. We were working on a roof. Just the two of us ripping off old shingles. It was middle of day was t overly hot, no rain and no reason to not continue working. At about 11am my u vale told me he wanted us to stop
For day. He was a very hard worker and this had never happened so I questioned why. He replied he felt like his luck had run out and something bad was going to happen to him and he didn’t want me to get hurt. I pushed the issue because he was a very funny light hearted guy and at first I assumed this was a weird joke. It was the only time I can ever remember him getting annoyed at me but he said “ I just feel like my luck has run out” and I m going to fall through the roof or off the side and I don’t want you to get hurt with me. What was even stranger was he had me climb off roof while he cleaned up and buttoned up tarp To protect work in case if weather. On ride home he told me about a book he was reading that wasn’t necessarily “religious” but was about faith. I thought this unusual as well since we would usually tell jokes, fart and laugh or talk about blackjack. I did not put his name or mine and have no reason to make this up. But it’s been 20 years and I have never fully been able to make sense of why he felt an impending fear on Sunday only 2 days before his death and how clear and succinct our discussion on the danger of being on roof his life being in jealousy and the only discussion on faith I ever had with him. He was one of those people who lightened a room and others loved to b around. I think if this morning quite often and even though I question what comes after this world I do find solace in our discussion. I don’t know what it was about the talk. But as we drove home and he spoke of faith I felt a sense of acceptance and that he was in some way ready for whatever was next. I am not a writer and wish I had better words to explain the feeling this talk had. But it wasn’t fear or regret. And it wasnt comments that he needed more time. Just a very comforting retrospective that he had done what he could loved his family and had lived a good life and was “ok” with whatever was next. To this day the whole event seems surreal and knowing our past relationship and the type stuff we spoke about this day feels almost like a dream. But the fact is it wasn’t and what I have written is 100% accurate regarding what was said the timing my thoughts regarding it. I don’t have much family any longer and even the few that remain have for the most part drifted. But I will always remember land value the time I got to spend with him one on one and am thankful for the peace and comfort his forsight and tradgedy has given me. He may not have known what waited for him in only two days. But he had a true sense of peace about him

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Blogger Avi Abrams said...

Thank you for sharing, quite a story

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Blogger Myles Seay said...

That Monsters on the Loose cover though...what a scary foreshadow.

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