By Dan Rosenberg
My wife, Abby, visited Venezuela frequently, beginning at age sixteen after her aunt and uncle moved there to operate an import/export business. Through the business, they got to know Raul Leoni, the President of Venezuela from March 1964 through March 1969. Leoni tried valiantly to establish a democratic society with a strong middle class. He modernized the country and successfully resisted a Cuban-backed insurgency.
In 1972, Leoni was admitted to the Cornell Medical Center in Manhattan for critical, medical treatment. Several family members, including his son, also named Raul, accompanied him. Abby’s paternal grandfather was in the same hospital, also in dire condition. Abby’s aunt recognized the Leoni family. She suggested that Leoni’s son meet Abby rather than just sit around the hospital for days on end. Raul and Abby became fast friends.
Abby’s grandfather and Raul’s father passed away about the same time. She continued to travel to Caracas and did so more frequently from Miami, where she was going to college. Her friendship deepened with Raul.
With the deteriorating situation in Venezuela over the last three decades, Raul and his family moved to Florida.
This past January Abby and I had the opportunity to have dinner in Jacksonville with Raul, his wife, their daughter, and her husband. Over dinner, Abby told the following story.
In early 1973, Abby was preparing to travel from Caracas to Miami. She was nervous as there had been some recent aviation accidents, including a fatal jet crash in the Everglades. She expressed her concerns to Raul. He said he would consult the family’s bruja (pronounced broo-ha, Spanish for witch or what we might call a psychic).
Raul said she spoke with the saints. Abby reminded him she was Jewish, but Raul assured her that his bruja could see the future. When Abby expressed her doubts, Raul told her the bruja was blind but somehow described ornaments that were placed in Raul’s father’s casket which only the family knew about.
Raul reported back from the bruja: (1) Abby will travel with an older woman, (2) a young woman, with long black hair would sit next to them, (3) after landing safely and walking down a long hallway they would come upon broken stairs, (4) she saw Abby at the bottom with a broken leg, and (5) Abby would be met by someone who loved her. But the bruja said if Abby was careful, she wouldn’t be injured. Abby was skeptical because they would be taking a cab from the airport.
Abby and the older woman, her mother, boarded the plane and were seated in a row of three. A young woman with long black hair took the vacant seat. They landed in Miami. After a long walk on the concourse, they approached a mass of people at the top of a broken escalator intended to take them to baggage claim.
Abby’s mother took all of the luggage and insisted Abby take one step at a time holding onto the rubber railing with both hands. No injuries. In baggage claim her friend, Michael, was waiting for them. He told them he knew Abby was coming back on that day. He checked, and there was only one flight from Caracas. He didn’t have any other plans, so he figured he would pick her up.
Is all this a random connection or paranormal power at work?