My experience with an angry soul leaving this earth

My brother was very ill, but was in hospital and told he was recovering well. Thus, I left to go do a temporary job in another city (gotta make money right?)

Mother's Day came upon and I wanted to call my Mother, but kept putting it off. Didn't know why, was just a strange feeling of dread. Which was not normal, as we get along just fine. This was before cell phones were the norm and had to go find a payphone, but that was not the cause for my hesitation, just wanted to point out that I could not recieve an incoming call at the time.

I finally called her late in the morning, as compared to first thing in the morning. My other brother answered the phone instead of her. It hit me like a ton of bricks, as I knew what this meant, my older brother passed on. Yes, indeed that is what happened and my brother told me to come home as soon as I could. I agreed and said I would drive home immediately.

My brother told me that my elder brother's last words were "where is XX?" (me) then died.

Was with 2 other people whom we drove to the worksite to all work and they insisted to come back with me on the 18 hour drive home. I was very happy to have their support.

I told my family I would be there in 18 hours because I had my friends who would help with driving the van back home (there was a bed in the back so we could take naps and exchange driving shifts)

We set off for the trip home, and almost immediately we came into problems.

First thing that happened was when I was driving, a loud "boom" and and I looked out the mirror and saw one of the exhaust pipes was behind us.

I pulled over and we grabbed it, put it in the van, and continued on. But this time one of my friends took the wheel as I was a bit shook up over that. The van was now pretty noisy without that muffler, but we continued on.

Not 10 minutes later, we heard the same noise and my friend who was driving looked at me with total fear in her eyes and said "No way", I said yep pull over.

We gathered the second exhaust pipe/muffler behind us (mind you these were not connected at all, there was one for each side)

She was really shook up now and so I took over driving again. Now the van was incredibly loud due to no mufflers at all and knew if a cop came up to us we would not only be pulled over, but told we have to get off the road with the shape the van was in. But we kept on going.

A few minutes later, out of nowhere, it started pouring rain. I turned on the wipers. They worked for maybe 30 seconds before pooping out. So here we are, in a downpour on a mountain top and the wipers aren't working. It was a hectic several miles before we could get off an exit. When we got to one, I made the decision to just stop for the nite as it was a small town and everything was closed (it was Sunday).

We got up in the morning, and bought some duct tape and wire to hook up the exhausts and found a paper clip to put back on the wiper motor (a pin fell out). We were broke eh? But we got it all to work again! So we hit the road.

We had only gone about 2 hours the day before, so had a long drive still ahead. Took turns driving and all was okay with the van. Until about 4 hours from our destination. I was driving and suddenly felt something wet on my feet. I look down and brake fluid is spitting up from the area the brake pedal is at.

Stopped at next stop and checked the master cylinder, which was now almost empty. Bought lots of brake fluid, filled it up, and kept going on. However, we had to stop about every 20 minutes to refill the resoiver sp? (yes, we bought alot of fluid on my charge card)

So I am driving the last few hours with this issue and could not help but think that my passed on brother was mad at me for not being there when he died. Whether it was on purpose or just extra energy leaving this reality causing the van issues or just all a big coinkydink, don't know (to be con't)

We finally make it to our destination and I check out the van (this was my only form of transportation at the time) the brake lines appeared to be severed cleanly. How this happened whilst on the road is beyond me.

The kicker is, when I was checking out the van I noticed the rear driver side tire. It had a bulge in it the size of a softball! If that had blown out, along with no rear brakes, we would have been dust.

So I ponder, was my brother mad at me, and he was scared, thus he scared me too?

I will never know I guess, this happened in 1995 and has haunted me ever since.

Anyone else have an experience like this?

No sorry I don't

But keep looking, who knows