For anyone that may have read "The Birdies" ... it's a sweet story BUT if you want to let the events of the story somehow validate the existence of angels or life after death, don't!  We really need to be careful as Christians for our witness to unbelievers, otherwise we will lose credibility.
 
The following is what snopes.com has to say (I am passing along the major points).  I know that snopes and urban legends are not the final authority, but there is certainly enough here to make me think this is not something to pass along.
 
 
What now circulates in shortened form as “A Dad’s Story” was originally named “Free the Birdies,” a title that aptly described the thrust of the unabridged account.  It was penned in 1994 by Lloyd Glenn, a Mormon then living in Mission Viejo, California, about the accident that befell his son Brian on 22 July 1993.  The Story now circulating has been altered to fit a more traditional Christian view in that all mentions of the caged “birdies” and the need to perform LDS temple ordinances to free them have been excised.  This act of an unknown editor has changed the story from one specific to the belief system of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to one that better fits mainstream Christian point of view.  A non-Mormon reading the shortened form of “The Birdies” story would conclude the beings the grievously injured child interacted with were angels.  A Mormon reading the full version would recognize them as the spirits of those as yet unborn or already departed.

 

YSIC, Deb B