SAN CLEMENTE, CA (ANS) -- At 5:00am on a July morning, twenty-seven-year-old Betty Malz was pronounced dead. A sheet was pulled over her head. Her mother and husband were notified, her father, prompted by the Lord, was already on his way to the hospital.

Book Cover

In her book, “My Glimpse of Eternity”, Betty describes what she felt, and heard on the other side of the dividing wall we call death. She shared how she returned to her body more than twenty minutes later – to the stunned amazement of her grieving family and the hospital personnel.

Her story is good news for all of us haunted by our own mortality. Yet, it is even more than that. This is the story of how God changed a woman who had to die in order to learn how to live.

In 1984, I invited Betty Malz to speak for a Hospital Christian Fellowship conference in the Midwest. Nurses, doctors, chaplains and other caregivers attended. An excellent communicator and vivacious, Betty shared her remarkable story when, during a family vacation, she became seriously ill and the dramatic weeks that followed. She shared about her hospital stay - how she, in a coma, and unresponsive, could hear and process what people around her were saying. “At the end of the day,” she remembered, “my vital signs were either better or worse, depending on the kind of visitors I had.” Her story, at this conference, was captured on a DVD which has since been viewed by thousands of people around the world.

Carl and Betty Malz

In a letter to me, dated February 6, 2009, Betty wrote. “I am so enjoying your book. The same day it arrived, I received notice from Baker Book House that they reprinted ‘My Glimpse of Eternity’. I have never traveled much overseas. I have only been to Heaven, South Africa, Texas and California, but my book has been printed in 14 languages. My husband, Carl, is a retired missionary from India. He has been to 64 countries. Even though he was a Protestant minister, he worked with Mother Teresa for 6 years in India. Just before she died, she told him, “Invest in people. It’s the only thing you can take with you to heaven. Things don’t transfer to eternity.” Fond memories, (signed) Betty Malz.

Carl Malz pictured with Mother Teresa

Last year, a friend of the family, Kitt Prible, gave me the sad news that, at the age of 83, Betty had passed away on February 4, 2012. She went to heaven a second time but this time she stayed. Her husband Carl, still vital and healthy, ministered to folks in his mobile home park. Then he suddenly developed a serious type of blood cancer and after just one week, he, too, went to heaven on June 3, at age of 90. Evangelist Lowell Lundstrom and his son, as well as the Malz’ local pastor in Clearwater, Florida, presided at both services.

The latest edition of Betty’s book was published by Spire, (Revell) a division of Baker Publishing Group. It is also available on www.Abebooks.com. Her DVD is available through Hospital Christian Fellowship, (USAHCF@gmail.com)

Aubrey Beauchamp R.N., founded the USA Hospital Christian Fellowship (HCF) in 1972 in San Clemente, California. HCF International was founded in 1936 in South Africa and is now active in well over 100 countries throughout the world. Aubrey was born and raised in Holland and completed her nurses’ training in Australia. She is the author of several books and edits a quarterly magazine A New Heart, Encouraging Christians in Healthcare. Her Handbook, “Compassionate Care for the Sick and Hurting” is now being used by small groups in churches and hospitals across the nation. For more information, visit: www.hcfusa.com