"Death is nothing to fear-and life without fear can be lived to the fullest."

This is Kimberly Clark Sharp's message from her extraordinary experience during the time after her heart suddenly stopped beating and she lay on the sidewalk, not breathing, and without a pulse. Swept into a peaceful loving place of brilliant golden light and warm comfort, she saw, for the first time, the meaning of life-and death.

Thereafter, Kimberly, with hamster Toto at her side, left Kansas for Seattle-known as "the Emerald City"-to fulfill a destiny devoted to the service of others as foreseen at the end of her near-death experience. Guided by a new sensitivity to the presence of angels, demons and other invisibilities, Kimberly attained a Masters degree in Social Work at the University of Washington and began a career in medical social work that put her in direct contact with dying people-and people who almost died and came back.

It is the inspirational stories of these near-death experiences, as well as Kimberly's own life challenges in love, family life and the diagnosis of breast cancer, that form the core of this surprisingly funny page-turner of a book.