The bond between mother and child is strong, and may even extend beyond the veil that separates life from death, as is told in this recollection from 1875:
In 1875, a man died leaving a widow and six orphan children. The three eldest were admitted into the Orphanage. Three years afterwards the widow died, and friends succeeded in getting funds to send the rest here, the youngest being about four years of age. At this time the Orphanage contained nearly 30 inmates, for the smaller ones of whom the Warden did everything that was required. There was not a spare room in the house, and visitors to the (Orphanage had to be lodged in the parsonage. About six months after the arrival of the younger children referred to above, two visitors unexpectedly arrived late in the evening—too late to get a bed aired at the parsonage; it was therefore arranged that they should have the Warden's room, he agreeing to take a bed in the little ones' dormitory, which contained 10 beds, nine occupied. No other change except this was made in the usual order of things.
In the morning, at breakfast, the Warden made the following statement:—As near as I can tell I fell asleep about 11 o'clock, and slept very soundly for some time. I suddenly woke without any apparent reason, and felt an impulse to turn round, my face being towards the wall, from the children. Before turning, I looked up and saw a soft light in the room. The gas was burning low in the hall, and the dormitory door being open, I thought it probable that the light came from that source. It was soon evident, however, that such was not the case. I turned round, and then a wonderful vision met my gaze. Over the second bed from mine, and on the same side of the room, there was floating a small cloud of light, forming a halo of the brightness of the moon on an ordinary moonlight night.
I sat upright in bed, looked at this strange appearance, took up my watch and found the hands pointing to five minutes to 1. Everything was quiet, and all the children sleeping soundly. In the bed, over which the light seemed to float, slept the youngest of the six children mentioned above.
I asked myself, "Am I dreaming?" No! I was wide awake. I was seized with a strong impulse to rise and touch the substance, or whatever it might be (for it was about five feet high), and was getting up when something seemed to hold me back. I am certain I hoard nothing, yet I felt and perfectly understood the words—" No, lie down, it won't hurt you." I at once did what I felt I was told to do. I fell asleep shortly afterwards and rose at half-past 5, that being my usual time.
At 6 o'clock I began dressing the children, beginning at the bed furthest from the one in which 1 slept. Presently I came to the bed over which I had seen the light hovering. I took the little boy out, placed him on my knee, and put on some of his clothes. The child had been talking with the others, suddenly he was silent. And then, looking me hard in the face with an extraordinary expression, he said, "Oh, Mr. Jupp, my mother came to me last night. Did you see her?" For a moment I could not answer the child. I then thought it better to pass it off, and said, "Come, we must make haste, or we shall be late for breakfast."
The child never afterwards referred to the matter, we are told, nor has it since ever been mentioned to him. The Warden says it is a mystery to him; he simply states the fact and there leaves the matter, being perfectly satisfied that he was mistaken in no one particular.
-Reverend C. Jupp
[It is possible that the child's experience here was a dream; if so, the case might be taken as a link between the two classes of phenomena—collective hallucinations and simultaneous dreams. ~from Phantasms of the Living]
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