I was standing by the side of a man here a few years ago; I just…He’d been a Christian for a long time, and he said, talked to me, he said, “Billy…” I said, “Is everything all right, Mr. Bledsoe?” He was about eighty years old. Said, “Oh, everything’s okay, Billy.” Said, “I want to see my Lord so bad. My life is all worn and gone.” Said, “I want to see Him.” He standing there talking to me, his wife there. He said, “Mother, why,” he said, “I haven’t seen you for years.” He said—said, “Billy, do you see her?” I said, “No.” He said, “Do you know, mother? Mother, this is…” Oh, Miss Bledsoe said, “Honey, you’re…” Said, “I’m not beside myself.” Said, “Sis,” she been gone for years. And I just wonder, if that great hour, when we are going down, God knows that this soul is coming from the body, like a tooth being extracted from the mouth, I wonder if God don’t say to mother, “Go down and stand by Jordan, son is coming over this morning.” And our eyes, when it’s breaking from the natural world into the spiritual world, then it becomes a visualize there, and we actually see them standing.

Life Story, 1951-07-22, Toledo, OH, §83