What happens in the next chapter of our existence? Do we go on after our time on Earth is complete? If so, what might that be like? One man who feels like he has a better handle on that answer is Bart Mruz.

 

In addition to being a successful REALTOR® with Nebraska Realty in Omaha and also with Coldwell Banker Realty in Phoenix, Bart is also the author of a story he wrote about — and for — his mother. The remarkable story is entitled, “All My Clothes Were White,” and chronicles the experience that Bart’s mother, Jean, and her family shared on the eve of her passing on March 12, 2022.

 

Jean lived to be 95 years old. Through later years, she enjoyed living in Phoenix during the winter months and then coming back to the family’s home in Fremont for the rest of the year. However, health issues had started to affect her.

 

“She had an episode six years before she died. She battled sepsis, and that really took a toll on her. She kept having a series of health challenges,” Bart says. “She didn’t like seeing the doctors, and developed a lung infection.”

 

Then came that night of March 11, 2022. Jean was in the hospital battling against the infection. Like many nights, she was being visited by Bart and his sister, Mary.

 

“We were getting ready to leave for the night,” Bart remembers. “I happened to turn and looked at Mom. She was sitting in bed and looking down. But her eyes were raised to the ceiling and her head was rocking back and forth. It was almost like the stories you hear of someone who is in the middle of a charismatic prayer. My sister saw her and was a little unnerved. She said mom’s name three times and she snapped out of it.”

 

Early the next day Bart received a call from the hospital. “I half expected that they were going to tell me that Mom had passed,” Bart remembers. “But the nurse I spoke with said, ‘Your mom would like you to come up and see her.’”

So Bart, Mary and their siblings, Bill and Bernie, went to see their mother (their other sister, Helen, was stuck on the East Coast, but arrived as soon as she could).

 

“We walked in and Mom was sitting up very alert in bed. She was so excited. She told us about what she called a dream. But it was more than that. She was like a little child in total wonder,” Bart says.

 

Jean told her children about her experience. After Bart and Mary had left the prior night, she began her experience. Soon, she found herself in what she described as a tube being carried skyward.

 

“She told us that she was being lifted with five other people who were dying, and she said, ‘All my clothes were white.’ After her experience, she was the only one who was allowed to come back,” Bart remembers.

 

The book goes into more details of Jean’s experience, including a very poignant reunion with her husband and Bart’s father, Walt, who had passed away in 1995. “We think from what she was saying that she met my dad on the outskirts of heaven,” he says.

 

“She had called us all together to tell us about what she had seen, and to ask us what we thought she should do … whether we thought she should stay or go. Each of us told her that she could go if she wanted to. All of it felt so godly and holy. She wasn’t afraid at all.”

 

About 100 minutes later, Bart says that Jean had fallen asleep and passed peacefully.

 

As Bart remembers, “Before she went, she was talking about my father and she said, ‘I hope it’s as beautiful as he says it is.’ Whatever she saw had to be so wonderful. I never dreamt she would have a passing like that. It was magic.”

 

After that experience, there were other signs … other clues that tied to Jean’s experience and, in the aftermath, all seemed to make sense. Bart knew what he wanted to do.

 

“I wanted to write this book just to get the message out about what she experienced. I have studied near-death experiences. And I wanted to share this to let people know that, yes, God exists, and yes, there is a heaven. And your family members are fine.”