On August 15th, 1939 an English passenger plane from British Airways Ltd. Crashed in Danish waters between the towns of Nykobing/Falster and Vordingborg. There were five casualties reported and one survivor. Just two weeks before Hitler invaded Poland with the world at the
brink of war the manner in which this incident was investigated left much open to doubt. The jurisdiction battle between the two towns and the newly formed Danish secret police, created an atmosphere of intrigue and distrust. The five casualties are; Cesar Agustin Castillo, a bio-
chemical engineer educated in both Germany and the USA, he is a Mexican national working for Standard Oil of New Jersey’s London branch. Samuel James Simonton, American national also employed by Standard Oil of New Jersey’s London office with a very strong military back ground, graduate of West Point. Erich Bruno Wilhelm Beuss a German national a corporate lawyer who is travelling with his medals earned in World War I. Anthony Crommelin Crossley English Member of Parliament who is known and outspoken on the antipathy to Hitler and the Munich Pact. He is also the sole defender of the Arab cause in the matter of Palestine in the 1930s. Alfred Stanley Mardsin Leigh, employee of British Airways LTD. The sole survivor is the Pilot Clifford Frederick Cecil Wright. In the winter of 2009-2010 a young executive, Bill is
promoted and transferred to London for a major International firm. He has struggled for the better part of his life with nightmares and phobias, which only seem to worsen in London. As he seeks the help of a therapist he accepts that his issues may well be related to a 'past-life trauma’. His love interest Maggie helps him in his quest and realizes that she too is part of the events as much in the past as she is in 2009-2010. Maggie and Bill find that through their love and the courage to submit to past life regressions. They begin to find more questions than answers. They become very curious about events leading up to World War II and through
archives and the information superhighway of the 21st century Bill and Maggie travel through knowledge and time to uncover the story of the 1939 plane crash. Their quest includes a friendship forged through Skype with a middle-aged woman in Florida obsessed with the truth about her grandfather’s death. This woman has been working for nearly two decades with archives in Denmark, England and the United States to unfold the mystery that left her family scarred and wondering. Her meticulous search and actual copies of documents in the book help the reader understand that we are indeed dealing with true events.
Excerpt:
Maggie liked that bookstore and shopped there often. She had been raised with all that is unlikely, unconventional and supernatural (perhaps even magical). As a child her world was that of fairies, ghosts, wishes and the power of crystals and planets. She was taught answers were to be found in round circles called Astrology charts and that there were many people in the world who were psychic and could foretell the future. Although that world was an appealing world, it was inevitable that Maggie, as so many teenagers do, rebel against the beliefs she was raised with and seeks other philosophies.
She experimented with various traditional religions and belief systems to fill in the void felt by those lacking any sort of faith. She found that although she liked many traditional religions and appreciated what they stood for, it was indeed Buddhism that made her feel the most complete. Maggie was for all intents and purposes an illogical, whimsical, adventuresome and happy young woman. She slept soundly and lived a very complete life.
The philosophies of acceptance by which she lived her life made her compatible with most people. She had a nice relationship with her mother, a Danish Astrologer, and her father a successful English businessman, who was happy to receive a little guidance from the planets. (If anyone objected to this, he happily pointed out that it had worked for Ronald Reagan). Maggie often read the books her mother spoke about. And every once in a while she even joined her mother in some New Age ritual or other.
It was the excuse of searching for the perfect birthday gift for her mother that placed her at the same book section and store. Because from the moment she saw the tall, slender man walking down the street, she felt that she needed to follow him. This is not something she remembered ever having done before. She was pretty and more often than not men approached her. Experience had taught her that many men worth talking to, could be shy and sometimes needed to be approached. With the confidence that is often exhibited by very pretty women, she was not deterred in the least by his surprised reaction to her smile and so she spoke.
“So, which of the women in your life recommended that book to you? Your Mum or your girlfriend?”
She was indeed pretty and in as much as he was instantly attracted to her, it was not in a purely physical way. Someday as their love story flourished, she would explain to him, how when two souls from the past meet, they recognize each other. That this happened in love stories, to parents when they first encounter the eyes of their newborn, and to friends as well as enemies.
Like so many lovers do, when they first meet, neither one of them spoke the absolute truth. Like so many lovers starting out a new love story if they had known where this would lead, both of them might have run out of the bookstore. But they both chose to stay, and so on a cold winter day in January of 2010, when the world was mourning the passing of so many souls in an Island called Haiti, their love story began. He smiled back and answered her question.
“Why would it have to be a woman? Why couldn’t a man recommend it?”
“Oh I see. You are an American.”
“No, Canadian, actually.”
“Same difference, perhaps in America or Canada, a man other than the author would recommend Many Lives, Many Masters . But here in England, well it would have to be a girlfriend. Probably on her grand quest as to how you are soul mates eternally destined to be together, or a middle aged Mum, who just discovered Brian Weiss, that’s the author. So it is that; or you have some sort of existential crisis that lead you to find the book on your own. So Mum or girlfriend?”
“Hmmm, let me see. My mother prefers to pray and attend church. I don’t have a girlfriend and it was the medical background of the guy who wrote the book, Dr. Weiss that impressed me. So maybe I do fall into the existential crisis category”
Her beautiful eyes widened.
“Existential crisis it is then, but if you seek impressive credentials in past life therapy you might want to read this book, Other Lives, Other Selves . Tell me, what triggered your belief in past lives?”
“Belief! I would not call it belief…. possibility. I’ve come to realize that strange things happen.”
“You know, once you read that book, you will believe. In life there are certain doorways that once you cross them, they will forever change you. And you might also resolve your existential crisis. What you will definitely find is that women love to sleep with men, who search for depth through such beliefs.”
So in that cold European winter when some in the world denied Global warming. He lay in bed, holding her, he could not imagine a less likely place to have encountered the perfect girl, the self-help section at a bookstore. She was by all accounts, very beautiful. Her laughter and smiley eyes were completely contagious. He was ready to settle down and she might be the one, even if that involved accepting some very unlikely ideas. There was the most extraordinary feeling of comfort in simply being with her.
Maggie had to laugh; she thought he’d be a quick and fun adventure, one that she would soon get out of her system. But this yuppie geek, as it turned out, was surprisingly from the very first moment special. This could be far more than a casual adventure.
M.C.V. Egan is the pen name chosen by Maria Catalina Egan the author of The Bridge of Deaths. Catalina was born in Mexico City, Mexico in 1959, one of eight children. From a very young age she became obsessed with the story of her maternal Grandfather, Cesar Agustin Castillo, mostly the story of how he died. She only spent her childhood in Mexico. Her father became an employee of The World Bank in Washington D.C.
From the early 1970s at the age of 12 she moved with her entire family to the United States. She was already fluent in Southern English as she had spent one school year in the town of Pineville, Louisiana with her grandparents. There she won the English award; ironically being the only one who had English as a second language in her class. In the D.C. suburbs she attended various private Catholic schools and graduated from Winston Churchill HS in Potomac, Maryland in 1977. She attended Montgomery Community College, where she changed majors every semester. She also studied in Lyons, France at the Catholic University for two years. In 1981, due to an impulsive young marriage to a Viking ( The Swedish kind, not the football player kind) Catalina moved to Sweden where she resided for five years and taught at a language school for Swedish, Danish, and Finnish businesspeople. She returned to the USA where she has been living ever since. She is fluent in Spanish, English, French and Swedish.
Mrs. Egan has worked for various companies and holds an Insurance license for the State of Florida. Not her favorite field but involves very nice folks and makes money!
Maria Catalina Egan is married and has one son, who together with their five pound Chihuahua makes her feel like a fulltime mother. Although she would not call herself an Astrologer she has taken many classes and taught a few beginner classes in Astrology. This is one of her many past times when she is not writing or researching.
She celebrated her 52nd birthday on July 2nd 2011 and gave herself self-publishing The Bridge of Deaths as a gift; she never submitted it to anyone prior to this decision and has enjoyed the very positive feedback.
