"I come to Nelson often. I participate in the Death Cafe here. Which is a place people come to talk about things - like death. Some of us have had near death experiences - and we talk about that."

"Have you had a near death experience then?"

"Yes, I have. In 1959. I was young and drunk - at a New Years party up on top of Hollyburn Mountain - which is called Cypress Mountain now. Anyways - I had a lot to drink. And just before midnight I went outside to get some fresh air. I wasn't dressed for the cold weather and in my drunkenness I fell down some stairs. I just laid there at the bottom of the steps, not feeling any pain, relaxed in fact. I remember hearing them all sing Auld Lang Syne inside. They didn't find my body until after 7am. 7 hours I was out in the cold - motionless. I remember hearing the voices talking around me. They were panicked but I was calm. A doctor was at the party and he checked for my pulse and couldn't find one. He held a mirror up to my nose and there was no condensation. I wasn't breathing. My eyes were open but had no response. I could hear them crying as the doctor said 'He's dead.' I couldn't move, but I didn't want to. It didn't even occur to me to try. I felt fine. They covered my body up and put it on one of those ski patrol boards. They strapped it to this old chair lift that brought me down the mountain. I could hear the clicks every time the chair passed a tower. Clickity-clack......clickity-clack. There was an ambulance waiting for me at the bottom. The two paramedics put my body in the back. I heard them talking. One said, 'What's wrong with this guy?'. The other replied, 'I don't know, but the doctor said he's dead. Let's have a look at him.' They were waiting for another person who had cut their face and needed stitches - in no rush for me because I was, well, already dead. Then the one said, 'Jesus Christ! This guy's alive!' They threw on the sirens and the lights and raced me to the hospital. Two days later I was awake and conscious. The doctors tried to give me explanations for what might have happened - but they didn't really know. There was no spiritual awakening, no light, no voices. Just calm."

"Did that experience change your life?"

"I stopped drinking."