A Native Woman's Near-Death Experience: Sent Back with a Purpose

Sharon Ward, an Ojibway woman from the Brokenhead Nation in Manitoba, shares a deeply personal account of intergenerational trauma, survival, and healing. She traces the devastating impact of Canada's residential school system through her own family — her mother was taken at three and a half years old and spent nearly a decade at Fort Alexander, enduring severe abuse and witnessing atrocities. Sharon describes how that trauma rippled forward, turning her once-gentle mother toward alcoholism once Indigenous women were legally permitted to drink in 1966, pulling the family into poverty and further abuse. Despite her own struggles — including navigating cultural identity and language barriers — Sharon found her way through a 40-year healing journey rooted in Ojibwe spiritual tradition, self-forgiveness, and the belief that every person has a sacred purpose. She closes with a message of resilience: that Creator only allows people to face what they are strong enough to bear, and that sharing her story is the work she was put here to do. “Creator's only going to allow people to go through what they are strong enough to go through” - Sharon Ward Connect with Sharon ⇨ Her email is: [email protected] Support our channel & Become a Member of Coming Home ⇨    / @cominghomechannel   Watch All of our Near-Death Experience Stories ⇨    • Near-Death Experiences   Share your NDE Story for consideration on our channel ⇨ https://www.cominghomefilms.org/contact Subscribe to our Newsletter ⇨ https://cominghomechannel.substack.com/ where we explore the meaning and purpose of Near-Death Experiences in the modern age. We write about the intersection of spirituality, life-after death, comparative religion, philosophy, depth psychology, modern culture, and most of all how we can stay connected to the truth that Life doesn't end when we die. Connect with us Facebook ⇨   / cominghomechannel   Instagram ⇨   / cominghomechannel   Video & Music : licensed through iStock / Artlist / Adobe Stock / PremiumBeat 00:00 - Opening: Sharon describes crawling through a light and feeling overwhelming love on the other side 01:36 - Introduction: Who is Sharon Ward? Ojibway Nation, Manitoba, raised on the trap line 02:42 - Residential Schools: What they were and how Indigenous children were forcibly taken from families 03:39 - Sharon's Mother: Taken to Fort Alexander at age 3½, siblings separated across Manitoba 04:00 - Horrors Inside the Schools: Mother witnesses murders, experiences abuse by priests and nuns 04:49 - A Community Destroyed: 1966 law allows Indigenous women to drink; mother's alcoholism spirals 06:00 - Survival Childhood: Family becomes self-sufficient, then alcohol breaks everything apart 07:31 - Sharon as a Teenager: Marijuana as coping, beatings by her mother, thrown out in a snowstorm 09:53 - Mother's Death: Cancer, drinking through chemo, a peaceful passing — then Sharon's grief unravels her 13:23 - The Overdose: Consumed 270+ pills and whiskey, hoping not to wake up 14:26 - The NDE Begins: Dying, Sharon hears her siblings' voices and feels the pain she would have caused 15:57 - The Voice and the Light: Told to "turn around," walks toward a distant speck of light, crawls through 17:05 - Meeting the Messenger: A being whose face cycles through all races tells her Creator has a job only she can do 19:46 - Sent Back: She begs to stay, is returned anyway — wakes on the couch as her sister calls the coroner 22:32 - Processing the Experience: Realizes over days that it was real; decides to begin healing 23:21 - Return to Indigenous Ways: Smudging, sweat lodges, traditional medicines as the path back 28:51 - The Philosophy of Forgiveness: Healing begins with self-kindness; forgiveness is for you, not them 30:11 - Closing: Life is sacred; Creator loves everybody