Appearing on TODAY Tuesday via satellite as part of the show’s week-long “Buzziest Stories of the Decade” series, Ralston, a mountain climber who famously cut off his own right arm to free himself after a tragic accident, told Meredith Vieira he had a premonition during his ordeal. During the fifth day of his six-day nightmare, he was visited by the specter of a young child — a child he firmly believes is the son his wife Jessica is due to bear him just after Valentine’s Day 2010.“It was kind of the first half of a déjà vu, or what some might call a prophecy,” Ralston, an animated free spirit, told Vieira. “I certainly feel that this little boy is perhaps the same little boy that I saw the very last night I was stuck in the canyon, when I thought I was going to die. There was this little child, about 3 years old, blond hair, that I picked up and was interacting with with my left hand and a handless right arm, and I saw myself holding him there.”
Now Ralston believes that when his wife gives birth, he will meet that little boy who buoyed his spirits during his life-or-death ordeal. “I can’t wait to see him. He helped save my life in that canyon, and I get to tell him ‘thank you’ in a couple of months.”