The Scottish Website

Glimpse of Reality?

A Glimpse of reality: Have you ever had something happen, an event, a coincidence, a thought which suggested that there was more to this life than we can comprehend? That we are part of something much larger than our minds can imagine? Well, throughout my life I have had what I call ‘glimpses of reality’: A reality which we can’t quite articulate.

When I was five years old my mother was murdered by the serial killer who was christened by the media in the UK as The Yorkshire Ripper. Between 1975 and 1981 he murdered thirteen women and my mother Wilma McCann was the first women to lose her life. What followed were years of physical and psychological abuse at the hands of our estranged father.

As a young boy I used to have a conversation. Not a conversation with friends or my siblings but one with myself. Although it was a terrifying time for me back then and at times I considered taking my own life, I had a thought, a silent conversation with myself that what I was experiencing would enable me to affect and help people around the world. I wasn’t sure how I would do it but this thought kept reoccurring.

I went through life the best that I could. I left school aged sixteen with no qualifications, I left home and I joined the army. Before long I was medically discharged for psychological reasons and I was back in my home town. Eventually, I managed to buy my own home which was a real success for me.

They say that you become who you spend your time with and I began spending time with people who were taking drugs. The inevitable happened and I ended up in Prison on a drugs charge. On my release and with my house under threat of repossession I reached Rock Bottom and formed a suicide pact with my sister.

My sister took her tablets the same day and I snapped out of my depressed state at the shock of what we had considered. I got Sonia into hospital and decided that life was worth living. I got a job two days before the house was being repossessed and I began to turn my life around.

That was 1997 and five years later my sister stabbed her boyfriend in self defence and I made a decision which would change my life. I decided to write a book about my life. ‘Just a Boy’ was published on 16th July 2004 but on the 1st July (mums birthday) I received a call to inform me that the local supermarket had put the books on the shelves early. I felt that it was a sign from mum to say that she was happy about me writing the book.

After hundreds of failed relationships over the years I finally met a beautiful woman in a local salsa club. I can’t explain why, and I have never felt anything like it before, but as soon as I set eyes on her something inside of me knew that she would be my wife and the mother of my children. We began dating, got engaged and set a date for the wedding. We chose the church and reception venue and began drawing up a guest list for the wedding which was to be on 11th August 2006. Unfortunately we had to cancel the wedding but it was for good reason. Helen fell pregnant and the due date was our wedding date. We couldn’t believe the coincidence.

Then something really amazing happened during the summer of 2005. I took Helen to meet some of my relatives in Scotland and whilst we were there it was decided that we would travel over to the Isle of Skye which is where the family lived when my mother was a teenager. My aunts took us to the house which they lived in fifty years earlier. The house was now a ruin but we took some photos beside the ruin and came home. Helen and I fell in love with the Isle of Skye that day and decided to have a holiday there together. On the last day of the holiday we decided to drive to the old ruin and see it for one last time. As we approached we noticed an amazing beam of light which appeared out of the storm clouds and seemed to fall on a white cottage on the hillside. What we saw was so amazing that I stopped the car in the road and took a photograph. We thought about knocking on the door of the white cottage and offering them a copy of the amazing picture but we didn’t find the courage. We came away from the holiday and began getting prepared for the arrival of our child.

Six week’s later we had an email (via my website) from a man who told us he was emailing from the house that my mother had lived in as a teenager. I was puzzled and corrected the gentleman after explaining we had been to see mums house only six weeks earlier and that it was a ruin. I even had a small stone off the wall of the ruin in my office to prove it. His reply blew me away. He knew the ruin we spoke of as it was a hundred yards away from his front door. The house mum had lived in was the house surrounded by the beam of light and he knew it for certain as he remembered his father renting the cottage to my Grandfather in 1962 when he was just a young child. My aunts had not driven down the lane far enough and their memory had become clouded. He remembered mum very well and had always known about mum’s death as it had been national news. He had come across my book and decided to contact me. I drove up to see him as soon as I could and on the 1st July (mums birthday) 2006, Helen and I were married on the doorsteps of his home: the house mum had lived in. The house surrounded by the beam of light. Six weeks later our daughter was born. For obvious reasons we called her Skye.

My first book was a number one bestseller, it knocked Robbie Williams from the number one position in The Sunday Times and has sold close to 400,000 copies. It has been published around the world and I have heard from hundreds of readers from countries far and wide who have been helped by reading about how I overcame adversity. I now speak all around the UK sharing my story and if I take a few seconds to contemplate: isn’t that what I, as an eight year old boy, predicted? That I would make a difference around the world and that my experiences would help others.

What is it that that young boy knew? What was it that enabled me to know that Helen would be my wife and mother to my children? What was it that caused me to stop my car and take a photograph of a beam of light which fell on a house that unbeknown to me my mother had lived in and where I would marry? I’m not sure but I have a belief that there is more to this world, to this life than we can comprehend or articulate.

You can watch a short film about this subject on my website.

www.richardmccann.co.uk

I am looking for other similar stories, events, happenings around the world, which can’t be explained but suggest that there is more to this world than we can articulate. They may be used in a book which I am currently writing called ‘glimpses of reality’.

webresponse@richardmccann.co.uk

About the Author

William Wallace Memorial