FRANKLIN—Cedric “Butch” Bryant knows what it’s like to die. He’s done it more than once. Four times by his count.

The first time he can still remember and that was in his pickup on an afternoon in early April.

“I had just left Motor Works in downtown. My lawnmower was in the back,” said Bryant. “I was at the stoplight of Clay Street and College Drive and blacked out. Actually, I died at the wheel.”

He was later told that a woman in the car behind saw Bryant slump over and the car drift a few hundred yards before going over a curb before coming to a stop; the lawnmower reportedly fell out into the street. She called 911, and that announcement was fortuitously heard on a scanner belonging to an EMT living across the street from the scene.

“He dragged me out and revived me,” said Bryant.

From the time he was retrieved by other EMTS and taken to Southampton Memorial Hospital, Bryant’s heart reportedly stopped two more times before he was stabilized.

His situation was critical enough that he merited being taken by a Nightingale helicopter to heart specialists at Sentara Norfolk General.

Faye, his wife, learned that her husband of 10 years had suffered another attack en route and had to be revived a fourth time.

Six weeks later, Bryant was brought out of his medically induced coma.

“I was so sick,” he said. “I still had the ventilator tube in my throat and couldn’t talk, couldn’t communicate. It was a hard time. I had to cough a lot. I knew I was in a hospital, but didn’t know where or what happened.”

In the meantime, Faye said, her husband had his chest cut open and a plastic sheet was draped over as doctors waited and watched his condition before deciding on a quadruple bypass surgery.

His own father had died of a massive heart attack in his 40s, Bryant later said as way of explaining the possible source of his own condition.

“I could see his heart beating,” said Faye. She added that Byrant had round-the-clock care, including a nurse at his bedside and a crash cart in a corner of his hospital room.

Renal failure and a collapsed lung also occurred and required dialysis and a ventilator. Today his kidneys are working at 50 percent capacity, but there’s no need for the periodic filtering. He also had to learn again how to breathe.

“I had a rough time of it,” Bryant recalled.

Later after he was feeling better and able to speak, Faye asked him if he saw any white lights – and added with a giggle – or if he felt any heat.

“No. I was like a computer switched off. There was no out-of-body experience,” said Bryant, adding there weren’t even sharp pains or dizziness just before he passed out that spring day.

“He’s a walking miracle,” said Faye. “The odds were stacked against him.”

She mentioned that one of Bryant’s sons thanked the operating doctor soon after learning his dad was going to live, and called the physician a healer. He in turn reportedly pointed upward and said, “The Healer up there saved him.”

Bryant said other doctors also called him “a walking miracle.”

Naturally, he and Faye continue to praise everyone who helped them.

“I was on a lot of prayer lists. I want to thank all the people,” said Bryant, adding, “They are wonderful people down there [Sentara]. Anything that’s wrong with your heart, that’s the place to be.”

Though not a regular churchgoer, he believes his faith was strengthened by the ordeal.

Today, life is fine.

“I feel pretty good,” Bryant said earlier this week at his home on Camp Parkway. “Thanks to my wife and family and friends.”

Faye, also a retired nurse, continued providing loving care when they got back home. She even took over the duty of mowing their extensive lawn.

Frequently around him are the family dogs, Buddy, Chelsea, Duchess and Tiffany. They sit or lie around as he watches television, though not really following any of the programs other than the news.

When the time’s right, he can get back to his gardening, which he loves.

The plan tonight for Bryant’s 61st birthday is to go out for dinner. Faye might even allow him a glass of red wine, which he occasionally enjoys.

His cigarette smoking of the past remains off limits, but he’s not relapsed.

Asked why he thinks he survived, Bryant doesn’t have a definite answer.

“I’m still trying to figure it out,” he said. “There’s a reason, but I don’t know why. I take it day by day.”