Gastonia Author Recounts Near-Death Experience and Subsequent Transformation
March 10, 2021
Bill Poteat, The Gaston Gazette
When retired educator and community leader Janie Peak texted me on a Sunday afternoon to say, “Have I got a story for you!!!” I knew I’d best quickly give her a call.
Knowing that Janie is a wise and thoughtful woman who in 2020 received the Gaston Regional Chamber’s Athena Award, I knew also that she would not contact me on the weekend unless she had something special for me.
She did indeed.
Janie had just finished reading a new book titled “Quarks of Light” written by Gastonia resident Rob Gentile.
The book details a near-death experience Gentile had after suffering a massive heart attack as well as an “out of body” experience that came while he was in the hospital awaiting a heart transplant.
Janie, who had a number of connections with Gentile’s wife, Melanie, offered to set up a meeting between the new author and me at the Gaston Country Club, an offer to which I readily agreed.
The three of us gathered in a comfortable parlor at the club on a picture-perfect early March morning, still chilly but with the promise of a mild afternoon.
Gentile arrived nattily dressed in khaki dress pants and a blue blazer, but the most striking first impression he makes is as a man of quiet but unmistakable charisma. When he talks, you want to listen.
And listen I did for the next hour and 15 minutes as he detailed his life from childhood in a Pennsylvania steel town to a 61-year-old freshly-minted author with a story of insight and inspiration to share.
When that conversation ended, I promised Gentile that I would not write a word about him or his book until I had read the book. Once I started reading that evening, I realized it would be an easy promise to keep.
Yes, the book describes Gentile’s near-death experience, during which he heard from his late brother-in-law, “Frosty,” who had committed suicide just a few weeks earlier.
Yes, the book explores, in great detail, his and Melanie’s relationship with their special needs daughter, Maria, who Gentile grew to understand is a perfect picture of God’s unconditional love.
Yes, the book details Gentile’s wait for a heart transplant donor, a wait during which he not only battled prostate cancer but also took a great risk on a new device just to stay alive.
Yes, the book recounts his “relationship” with Molli, the young woman whose heart he received after she committed suicide at the age of 20.
And yes, the book examines his difficulty in readjusting to life in this world after he had experienced the beauty and the peace of what he terms, “The Ethereal.”
Yet the book is so much more than the sum of its parts.
It is, in essence, the story of anyone and everyone who has ever questioned the meaning of human existence, who has reached to find a higher purpose for living, who wants to live fully, freely, and peacefully.
After suffering his heart attack, Gentile was being administered to in the emergency room of CaroMont Regional Medical Center when he flatlined and was technically “dead” for the next 20 minutes.
While he has no memory of that or the next four days he spent in a coma, he remembers clearly feeling Frosty’s presence and hearing his voice as Frosty told him, “I’m in a good place. I made a big mess of my life. Go back and clean it up.”
Following that incident and his heart transplant, Gentile pondered whether to share his story, wondering if anyone would possibly believe him or how it might affect his life as a steel salesman.
“I decided to go for broke,” he said of his decision to write a book. “I decided to let the words come through me rather than from me. The Holy Spirit helped me write. When the words came, they were fast and furious.”
The book is dedicated to his daughter Maria. “I wrote it to honor her and because I have come to see her as the pure embodiment of God’s love.”
“Maria,” he added, “is proof to me that God exists. Before, my faith had been an insurance policy. Now, I live it.”
I was struck throughout the book by Gentile’s constant search for answers and for meaning and his reiteration of the belief that each of us must seek our own truths and find our own path.
“When there’s no way out,” he said of the woes and difficulties all of us must face, “go within. Find that place inside yourself and listen, simply listen. I don’t think prayer is about talking nearly so much as it is about listening.”
Bill Poteat, Gaston Gazette.
I’ll be honest here as I close.
I’ve reviewed and recommended some books over the years that I really did not feel strongly about.
But Gentile’s book is different.
Reading it is a challenge worth taking, especially as we begin to emerge from the shadow of COVID-19 and to think about what each of us can do to build a more peaceful, more just society.
You can read more about Rob Gentile, peruse his blogs, and yes, purchase “Quarks of Light” by visiting his website at robagentile.com.
Bill Poteat, who realizes that the older he grows, the less he knows, may be reached at 704-869-1855 or bpoteat@gastongazette.com.
Original article link: https://www.gastongazette.com/story/news/2021/03/10/gastonia-author-recounts-near-death-experience-and-transformation/4642704001/
