‘Stories from the Edge’ ponders life’s mysteries on the precipice of death

I have a close friend who is deeply metaphysical and believes it’s possible to communicate with the dead. I love her dearly and support her, but I’m a skeptic who does not share a lot of her beliefs. And yet, I recognize there are mysteries in this world that can’t be explained.

This friend was unexpectedly widowed at a young age. The day of her husband’s funeral, she and I stood at her kitchen sink. On the window in front of us sat a small, framed photograph of my friend and her husband in silhouette, holding hands on a beach. As we stood there quietly talking, the photograph suddenly crashed into the empty sink with such tremendous force and clatter, we both jumped back in shock. There was no logical explanation for it. It had all the hallmarks of a “sign.”

In “The Boy Who Already Knew,” a pregnant mother prepares to tell her young son the child she is carrying has died and she is going into the hospital to have it removed. But before she can get the words out, the boy tells his mother he already knows. His deceased grandmother had visited him in the night and told him.

“I’m skeptical of overt ‘signs from God,’ but … I hear too many of them to discount them,” writes Eynon. “The mental gymnastics required to explain such stories, even partially, seems counter-productive. ‘Having to know’ keeps you caught up in your head with no space left to ponder and appreciate hazy uncertainties and veiled wonders.”