A (0:01)

Ever since I started serving cut water canned cocktails to my guests. Hey. Hi. How are you? Yeah, go on through. I've gone from host to hero. Thanks to cut water, I can make real perfectly mixed cocktails in seconds. It's as simple as garnishing a glass, cracking my can of cut water open and pouring it over ice. Cut water, real cocktails, perfectly mixed. Copyright 2025 Cut Water Spirits, San Diego,

B (0:27)

CA IN Enjoy responsibly right now at the Home Depot. Shop spring Black Friday savings and get up to 40% off plus up to $500 off select appliances from top brands like Samsung. Get a fridge with zero clearance hinges so the doors open fully even in tighter spaces in your kitchen and laundry. That saves you time. Like an all in one washer dryer that can run a full load in just 68 minutes. Shop Spring Black Friday Savings plus get free delivery on appliance purchases of $998 or more at the Home Depot. Offer valid April 9 through April 29. US Only C Store Online for.

C (1:13)

Welcome to Other World. I'm your host, Jack Wagner. This episode takes place all the way back in 1981 in Madison, Wisconsin. It comes from a woman named Christina. And it all starts when her 13 year old half brother Jay starts telling the family that he knows he will die soon because he saw it in a dream. He doesn't seem upset by it, he just starts talking about it regularly in a very matter of fact way, as though he wants to be prepared. This is something that the family wasn't quite taking seriously at first. I mean, middle school boys do and say lots of strange things. But as time went on and he continued to talk about it, they started to grow concerned. I'll let Christina take it from here. This episode is called Fair Warning and you're listening to Other World.

D (2:17)

Hello, is this Bobby? Yes, it is.

C (2:19)

At its core, the science you can't argue with.

D (2:22)

What I'm worried about is up in the sky.

C (2:25)

God, it's almost frustrating that it's happening.

D (2:27)

I'm. I'm going to die. His limbs were just like wrong. Everybody moves back into the light, even

C (2:34)

if it takes them a minute.

D (3:08)

My name is Christina Amelong and I live in my hometown, actually in Madison, Wisconsin. I'm just about to have my 62nd birthday and I had this very profound thing happen to me when I was 16, 17 years old and I've been probing its mystery ever since. So I grew up in Madison, Wisconsin, but also my parents were raised just like an hour and a half in the Countryside near Spring Green, Wisconsin, in Richland Center, Wisconsin. So I spent a lot of time on farms when I was growing up. But also our neighborhood was on the edge, or is on the edge of a marsh. And so there was a lot of the kids, just like there was 20 kids in our neighborhood and a bunch more in the extended neighborhood. And we were just outside playing all the time. And whether it's on our bikes or our skateboards or playing tag or hide and seek. My biological dad and mom met when they were teenagers. And my dad worked on my mom's farm. And they ended up getting pregnant out of wedlock, and they were forced to get married. Then my dad went off to the Navy. Cause he had already been sucked signed up for the Navy. And then my mom, six months later, followed him to the Navy. So she went to Virginia Beach, Virginia, and was on a naval base with him. And there was tons of violence and alcoholism. So she ended up having to escape in the night to protect her life. He was threatening to kill her and me and things like that. Also, she came home to Wisconsin, and she was trying to talk about what happened to her. And basically her family was like, we don't want to hear about it. And his family was like, we don't believe you, and we don't want anything to do with you or your daughter ever again. And so that was the way it was for a lot of years. Then my mom remarried when I was like, 2 years old, and she had a son with him, and that was my brother Jay. And then that was pretty tumultuous and alcoholic and violent also. And so 10 years later, my mom and I are sitting in these chairs across from each other, talking to each other, and I'm like, I hate my dad. I hate him. And then she looks at me and she says, well, he's not your dad anyways. You know, just like, drops this bomb on me. And I'm like, well, what do you mean? And she says, well, he's not your dad. And then I said, well, I want to meet my real dad then. And they get. And Richard and my mom get divorced. And then I go to a steakhouse and meet my biological dad when I'm, like 13 years old. And we have an awkward conversation that doesn't leave me feeling like I want to know my dad more. And nothing really happens. My mother was raised a Methodist, but she was pretty removed from that. And my stepfather, he wasn't at all spiritual or religious. And, you know, pretty much just like work and alcohol and maybe some euchre so card playing, that was kind of your average day. Camping on the weekends and vacations and things like that. But there was no quality of the mystical or strange things happening. My mom was a single mom, so there was all of that. You know, there was a lot of alcoholism and trauma, and by the same time, there was all these kids to play with. So that was really a saving grace for my young life. So one day when I was 16 and my brother Jay was 12, my mother and I are in the kitchen and I'm helping her make a spaghetti dinner. And she had just gone out to the garden and picked these beautiful ripe tomatoes. And. And my brother Jay, he's in his room. She made him go in his room and clean his room. So it's just the two of us in the kitchen, and it's a warm summer day, and I can hear some blue jay out in the yard making its call. And the cat is meowing at the door. So I go let the cat in. I set the table. And then Jay comes in. And me and my mother and Jay are sitting around and having dinner, and the forks are clanking and the spaghetti is going in our mouth, and we're sitting around the table, both relieved that my stepfather had just been kicked out of the house, but also sad and not quite sure what to talk about. And Jay decides to fill the silence and starts saying, I had a dream last night. And my mom says, you had a dream last night? What was it about? And he says, well, I'm riding my bike, and it's something to do with the green car. I can't see the car exactly, but I can tell that it's a green car and there's a terrible accident. The car hits me, and I'm not sure what happens next, he says. But then suddenly I'm like, it's weird. I'm up above my body and I'm looking down on the scene, and there's an ambulance there, and my bike is laying over there. And I see the green car, and people are trying to work on me, trying to bring me back to life. I don't think they're going to be able to. He says, I'm very confident that I'm going to die young. And my mom just gets up from the table and says, who wants more food? And that is the end of that conversation. That particular day, I think we, after that, watched Hawaii 5o. You know, there was so much trauma in our life that I. It was interesting. That's one thing. It was so very interesting. That this 12 year old is talking about dying and he's not worried about it. That's the big thing. Like, aren't you afraid? He was not afraid at all. It was just very matter of fact. And so somehow that was very soothing to me that he wasn't scared. He wasn't telling us because he was trying to make something different or that he was afraid of this something but he was very much matter of fact. This is going to happen, there's nothing we can do about it. So I just took it in stride but didn't believe it very much I didn't believe what he was saying and very much my mother didn't want to believe what he was saying. So he said, this is going to happen to me, I am going to. There has. I am going to die, I am going to die young. He's very matter of fact about it. It didn't affect his mood and he said that, you know, he'd be up above his body watching the paramedics try to bring him back to life. And he picked this song, Stairway to Heaven to be played at his funeral and he picked the cemetery where he wanted to be buried. And that was just his like, you know, like he's telling us about he's going on a field trip at school. There was nothing odd about it. So I just thought my 12 year old brother was very weird and even though we had a very loving relationship and I feel so much love for him today and he's made my life so rich and mysterious, I at that time just thought he was crazy weird and he was making stuff up, maybe telling stories to cope with the difficulty of the alcoholism in our home, the violence in our home. So this was not a one time thing. He talked about this story, not obsessively, but he wanted us to be prepared like I had said earlier. And he was very clear about that. I want you to be prepared. He would say those kinds of things. One time I was in the bathroom and it was a Saturday afternoon and I was getting ready to go to the mall with my friends to hang out and I was curling my hair and he kind of comes by the bathroom door and then he passes it. My cat's sitting there licking her paws and he turns around and he stands in the bathroom door and he looks at me and he says to me, I need you to make sure that they play Stairway to Heaven at my funeral. And I'm like, my hair's sizzling away and I just, I'm looking at the cat and I'm I'm like, what is he talking about? I can barely believe what he's saying, but we both love this song. And I just say, would you shut up? And why do you have to talk about this all the time? And he says, I just want that song played at my funeral. And I know you won't forget. And then I say, fine, get out of here. And then he walks away and leaves. You know when someone's telling you that they're going to die and they're happy and they're young and they're outgoing and that are athletic, you can't comprehend that it will come true. And so I just remember the dissonance and not having any capacity to really, like, process the story. But more, my brother is just annoying is all I could think about. So he was talking about this all the time and to many people. And a couple of his friends told me a few different stories. And one of the stories that I've learned is that he and his friend Stevie Anderson were swimming, and they were both quite stoned. So Stevie tells me that the two of them are swimming in the marsh, and. And somehow Stevie ends up at the bottom of the marsh, and he's feeling like he can't swim. He feels like he's drowning. And Jay dives down, pulls him up, pulls him to shore, Supposedly is giving him cpr. And so Stevie told me this story many years later. And he once he kind of gets over the trauma of, I've just about drowned. Jay says, don't worry about it. I've seen my death. And it's a beautiful thing. If you would have died right here, it would have been just fine. So another friend tells me that they're at one of the houses where the kids would go after school. And they were all sitting around joking and smoking a joint. And Jade just says, this friend tells me. Jay says, y', all, I've seen my death, and I'm not going to live very long. And it has something to do with the green car. And they're just laughing at him, telling him, jay, shut up. We don't believe you. How can you see your death? How can anyone see their future? And so he just shuts up about it. My friend told me another story. Is that my cousin, he told me that Jay and he were sitting on the swing on the porch, and they're swinging, and they're watching the fireflies flitter in the lawn and looking out over at the cows. And then Jay says, hey, Marty, I want you to know that I'm not going to live very long. And I really love that you've helped me with my wrestling career and my baseball career. And I just need you to know that I am going to die young. And Marty recalled that story to me, like, 30 years later. My mom had a best friend named Wanda, and Wanda got this call from my mother, and it was in the middle of the night, and Wanda's daughter Marcy, somehow is awake and listening to this phone call. And my mom is sobbing, and she's saying, jay keeps telling us he's going to die, and I don't know what to do about it. And Wanda's basically just saying to her, carol, I don't think there's anything you can do about it. You can't lock him up for the rest of his life. So one time, I'm playing euchre with my mom and her friend Char, and Jay walks through the kitchen, because the kitchen was in between the TV room and the bathroom. And he walks through. Well, I could hear Gilligan's island in the other room. And he says, you know, it's not gonna be much longer. And Char says, what's not gonna be much longer? And he says, my. My death is not going to be much longer. He was talking about this all the time for the course of a year. I remember April 19, 1981, it was Easter, and we had just gone to church at the United Methodist Church, which is little church in the countryside in Ithaca, Wisconsin. And then we had gone downstairs into the basement of the church, and we had eaten ham and jello and potato salad and these sorts of things. And my cousins are all around, my aunts and uncles, and the meal finishes and cleans up, and we all get ready to play. Euchre and Jay and Kenny are on one team, and me and my mom are on the other team, and they actually beat us. And we're kind of being pissy about that. And then my Jay asked my mom and if he can go hang out with Kenny and go feed the cows. And he's grabbing her purse and he steals this piece of gum. And she's reluctant to let him go, but she says, fine, I'll see you back at the house in one hour. And so the church was just really close to the farmhouse a couple blocks away. And he gets a ride from my. My Uncle Orland. They go up to the farmhouse, and then a little bit later, after we play another round of euchre, we go back up to the farmhouse and we hang out in the kitchen a little while talking to my Aunt Alice and my cousin Marty. And we're getting ready to leave, and we go into the mudroom, and we're. And Jay has just come in from feeding the cows, and me and my mom are getting our coats on and putting our shoes back on. And just as my mom goes to grab the door and open it up for us to leave, Jay points at this picture right to the left of the door. That's an aerial view of the farm property with the house and the barn and the cows. And just on the edge of that photo, you can see there's a little, small cemetery where most of the people that are buried there. It's like 1918, even the late 1800s. There's whole families in the cemetery. It's right next to this geological structure called Elephant Trunk Rock. And he points to that, and he says, that's where I want to be buried. We all just fall into silence and don't really know what to say. My mom opens the door and says, jay, come on. You know. So there would be an example of when Jay would speak about this. My mom would often get angry and. Or just fall into silence. So we got in our car and we drove home in silence, listening to her favorite songs, Elvis Presley and a few others. One thing is, I started as was going on all around me, drinking and smoking weed when I was 13 years old. So this all started when I was 16 and 17, and I was much more interested in my friends and boys and these kinds of things. So I. I feel like. I felt like it was just an annoyance, and the cognitive dissonance of it was just too great to be able to process it at all. So it's the end of May, and my mother is thick in her gardening, planting tomato plants and seeds, cucumbers, lettuce, all these things. And she's out in the yard, and she's trying to set up our sprinkler, and she's realizing that it's broken. And also, I have a pet pigeon at this time. So the pet pigeons like following her around the yard. And I'm kind of just watching all of this, and she's like, ugh, I need a new sprinkler. And Jay just gets home from school at that moment, and he says, oh, Mom, I'll go get you a new sprinkler. And she says, well, you're grounded. You can't. I'm not letting you do that. And he's like, please, please, I'll bring Terry with. And she says, fine, you can go, but I want you to just go right there to J.C. penney's, which is just basically a park ride across from our house. Like a mile long park. It's a very big park, but there's bike paths through there and everything. So you really hardly have to cross any roads, you know. And she's got this green car in her mind as a problem. And so she says, yes, but come right back. And so Jay runs up the hill where Terry lives, asks Terry if he can go. Yes, he can go. They run back down the hill. Jay has an extra BMX bike, so Terry rides that. Jay rides his fancy BMX bike with the. I think he has these new tires on it. And they ride over to JCPenney's. They're doing some wheelies as they leave the driveway. And I am wondering like, oh, you know, what's going to happen to my brother? Can feel that quality. Is he going to be okay? Like a. Like a deep angst of a worry inside of me, but also just brushing it off. So I go in the house and I'm doing the dishes and Jay's taking longer than he should be. My mom's kind of pacing. I'm noticing that she's come in the house, she's given up the gardening, she turns on the tv, I believe there's like Columbo or something on. She's a big detective show watcher. And Jay comes home and he has not only that sprinkler which he hands her, but he also has a yellow rose bush. And he hands her the rose bush and he says, hey, Mom, I got you your birthday present. And she says, what do you mean? My birthday's not for five weeks? And he says, well, I don't know if I'm going to be around for your birthday. And she just grabs the rose bush and says, thank you. And then he leaves the room and I follow him and I go in his bedroom and he pulls out this CD of Van Halen. Fair warning, he had also bought that album with the rose bush and with the sprinkler at JCPenney. And he sticks it in his CD player and he kind of cranks it up and he and I are just sitting in his bedroom listening to Van Halen.