April 13, 2026 - Do you believe in the after-life? Most people seem to believe that God has prepared only two places for human beings to go after death, Heaven or Hell. Those who have trusted in Jesus will ultimately end up in a place the Bible calls ‘Heaven’, and those who do not will end up in the other place called ‘Hell’.
The big mystery is what happens to us right after death. The Jews in Jesus’ days on earth believed that a person’s soul or spirit hovered around the body for three days before departing. That is why Jesus waited for four days before raising Lazarus from the dead, to counter that belief.
Our family experienced four extraordinary events after the death of my niece, Cecilia Block Smith, in 1997. These strange events have never been reported outside the immediate family until now.
My sister, Evelyn Murphy Block, gave birth to a beautiful baby girl on April 5, 1960. She was the only child born to my sister who lived in Lufkin, Texas at the time. Cecilia was named after my father, Cecil Murphy, and was a rambunctious child while growing up in Lufkin. She graduated from Lufkin High School in 1978.
Cecilia was a singer and dancer of considerable success. She sang at the Louisiana Hayride and other county western shows in East Texas. She was involved in many pageants as an entrant as a girl growing up, and as an adult as a judge and organizer. She also assisted with many style shows. She was a physical education instructor at Brookhollow Elementary School. She was an honorary board member of the Miss Texas Pageant.
She won a Farrah Fawcett Look-Alike Contest , garnering all types of big prizes including going out to spend some time with Farrah Fawcett and Lee Majors. It was big news in Angelina County at the time.
Shortly after her marriage to Edward Smith in 1996, Cecilia discovered that she had an aggressive form of breast cancer. After a hard-fought fight with the cancer, her life came to an end on April 23, 1997. She was 37 years old. Her last meal consisted of “junk food”, a corn dog and tater tots with lots of mustard and catsup.
On Friday, April 25, her funeral was held at Calvary Baptist Church in Lufkin, Texas. During her morning funeral a heavy wind and rain event occurred prompting the minister to comment that “even the angels were crying for Cecilia”. Strangely, by the time the funeral was over, the weather suddenly cleared up on the procession to the cemetery. I thought it was a rather strange event. However, even stranger events were to occur.
On the following Sunday night, my son, Doug Murphy, experienced an unexplainable event. Living in North Carolina at the time, Doug explained in his own words his encounter with his first cousin, Cecilia:
“I was awakened out of a deep sleep a couple of days after Cecilia died. I saw her standing at the foot of my bed. She told me that she was OK and not to worry about her. She then turned and extended her hand out and a small blonde, blue-eyed girl came walking in and grabbed Cecilia’s hand. This happened while my wife was pregnant and we did not yet know the sex of the baby. Cecilia further said that we were going to have a beautiful, blonde, blue-eyed baby girl just like this one. Her prediction came true. I told my wife about it the next morning, and then related the event to my Mom a few days later, and was told that Mike had related a similar story to his Mom as well.”
Mike Murphy, another first cousin, lived in Washington state. He told the following story of an event that happened to him the same night:
“I remember this moment like it was yesterday. It was early in the morning just as the sun was starting to come in through the bedroom window, and I can remember a voice, or perhaps a touch, that woke me. I then heard Cecilia say ‘ it’s alright, everything is fine now‘. I saw her near the foot of the bed with the brightest eyes and a huge smile - then she was gone. I had been feeling really bad for the past weeks about Cecilia’s battle with cancer and the pain she had endured, but after this moment I felt a huge feeling of relief knowing that she was free from all of it. I did not tell my wife about this until later in the morning because I was still trying to get my head around it. After I reran it many times I came to realize this did happen and it was a very special moment.”
Cecilia’s many friends organized a memorial service at her graveside on the one-year anniversary of her death. Many of us gathered at her grave in Garden of Memories Memorial Park in Lufkin. It was a beautiful, cloudless day for the event. Just as the service ended a rushing wind came, seemingly out of nowhere, and blew over all the flower arrangements around the grave. My mother was standing in front of me and was blown backward into me, which kept her from falling. As quickly as it appeared, the wind left, a calmness settled back over the grave site. Perhaps Cecilia was letting us know that she was there in spirit with us.
As far as I know, Cecilia has not made any further appearances during the past fourteen years. I am convinced that somehow, Cecilia was permitted to contact certain people during the three days after her death. I have never believed in ghosts per se, however, the Bible does teach us that there is a spiritual world about us that we cannot see or understand. I think that Cecilia gave us a peek into this hidden world.
