Photo: Getty Images/Dave Basner
One of the biggest questions in life is what happens after it. For the most part, it's something that we might not ever know the answer to until our time comes, but one woman has been able to shed some light on the topic because she has a first-hand experience with it. Tina Hines recently died for a whopping 27 minutes after suffering a heart attack. Thankfully, she was brought back to life. In fact, she was resuscitated six times - four by her husband with CPR and twice more at the hospital with a defibrillator. While that alone is remarkable, it's what occurred afterward that's actually the most notable part of her story.
When Tina was brought back to life for good, she had a tube in her throat and wasn't able to speak, but she immediately signaled to her family to hand her a pen. When they did, she wrote them a haunting message that read, "It's real." Her closest relatives gathered around her bed and asked her what she meant, With tears in her eyes, Tina pointed to the sky, clearly meaning heaven.
So moved by her aunt's experience, Tina's niece, Madie, took the "it's real" note to a tattoo parlor and had the scribbled words permanently inked on her wrist. She shared a picture of the tat on Instagram, as well as a photo of Tina writing the original message. In the caption, Madie explained in detail what happened with her aunt.
Madie stated that her aunt's story is "too real not to share," adding, "[It] has given me a stronger confidence in a faith that so often goes unseen. It has given me tangibleness to an eternal hope that is not too far away."
The tube in Tina's throat was removed not long after she wrote her message. Once she was able to speak, she further described what she experienced and saw, explaining, "It was so real, the colors were so vibrant," revealing that she saw black gates and that Jesus was standing in front of them with a bright yellow glow behind him.
Tina has since made a full recovery.