Over a period of about one month in the Spring of 1973, I would awaken from a deep sleep, sit up in bed feeling afraid and that there was a warning of some kind of something about to happen. The first time this happened I tried to wake up my wife thinking there was fire in the house because I could see the hallway off the bedroom and into the kitchen full of smoke. I did not see flames or smell smoke, but smoke was everywhere. I would run out to the kitchen looking for fire and found none. Within a few minutes the smoke would just disipate.
My wife, as this occurred on several occasions, would get up with me and tell me there was nothing, but I could still see the smoke disappearing around me while we were talking. After three or four occasions I began to doubt that I was sane. Each time it happened , I would run out to the kitchen knowing I was definitely fully awake. I would sit at the table watching the smoke around me which would last anywhere from 60 sec. to four minutes. During this time our kids started to complain of headaches and not feeling well. My wife complained of an odd smell in our bedroom clothes closet, but could find nothing. My wife wondered if it was the smell of gas so as a precaution ,the gas co. came out to check the situation and found that all was well. I was still plagued by this vision night after night.
In all the gas company checked the house twice in this month. One Saturday morning, my wife had an unexpected visit from the superintendent of the gas company. He happened to be in Sarnia visiting his family and because of the calls to our home decided to see for himself what kind of problem we had. My wife was in the basement rec room with the children so he was asked to come into that area. He wasn't even there two minutes when he asked my wife to take our children and get out of the house as quickly as possible. Unbeknownst to us the rec room ceiling was bowed in one not well lit corner and was full of natural gas. The house could have blown at any minute.
The yard adjacent to the rec room where the gas meter was had a fully saturated ground progressing all the way to the rear yard. There was a major leak in the gas line which saturated the ground to the point that it seeped through into the house creating a pocket in the rec room ceiling and seeped upward into the bedroom closet. After the repair of this leak there were no more nightmares of smoke and fire. The inspector who came unexpectedly could not explain what made him come that day or what made him concerned about the previous visits by his staff. Whatever happened he saved our lives and I believe the visions were a warning of potential disaster. I cannot explain whyI had these visions nor can I forget them even now. What mechanism was in place that gave me those visions and brought a perfect stranger from another city into my home that day?