Visits from the other side . . .

I have been feeling a bit uninspired to really post anything lately. Will has been sick, and I know you have heard enough of those posts this year!

But Natalie at Mommy of a Monster got me inspired today with her post. She talks about an encounter with a ghost and even the presence of her mother in law.

Which made me think of some of the encounters I have had. After my mom passed away, my sister and I were praying we would see her again, we wanted a sign to know that she was okay and that she was not in pain anymore. I was living with my sister and one day we were just hanging out downstairs when we heard a little noise coming from upstairs. My sister has some squeaky floor boards, so we thought it was Kevin, her husband up there. We called out to him but he did not answer, we called to him in the basement and found him playing video games.

We both just looked at each other and were kind of spooked but thought, maybe it was our mom. So we went upstairs together and noticed in the hallway by my sister's room was my mom's pink scarf that my sister ALWAYS kept in her bed. My sister picked up the scarf and she smelled it and she started crying because it smelled exactly like our mom. We started to tear up because we knew now she was okay. She was in a place where she had no more pain.

Another story is more of a presence but to me it feels like it is real. My mom was always terrified of my driving. I do not think she enjoyed me driving her home from chemo, let's just put it that way. She was always so nervous for me. Shortly after she past, I was getting in my car to go to school and there was a yellow butterfly lingering by my driver side window. Even as I backed up this yellow butterfly stayed with me until I got out of my neighborhood. I instantly, without a doubt thought it was my mom. This was not the only time that would happen, in fact I had yellow butterflies just randomly appear when I would drive. Once it was on a busy highway in traffic, tell me that is not weird?! Then one day I got a notice in the mail to renew my license so I headed to the DMV to get that done. As I was waiting I noticed a yellow butterfly on a license plate, I don't know about you but I thought that was another sign. That day I ended ordering myself those butterfly license plates and on it I put, MSNMA. I thought she would be happy and now she would be with me all the time. Weird, I know. But when you lose someone, everything becomes a sign or a feeling.

The last story is of an encounter my mom had with her best friend who died in a boating accident. We lived in Va. and my mom's best friend lived in Nebraska. It was fourth of July and Donna(my mom's bf) and her family were going out on their boat. Well, something happened and the boat exploded. Luckily their youngest was at the car getting something, but her husband was killed instantly and Donna was thrown up on the dock and she was on fire. Her youngest came running down and threw his mom in the water to extinguish the flames and then he held in there until the ambulance came.

My mom was in shock when she heard the news and she went out for John's funeral and then to visit Donna in the hospital who's body was 90% covered with burns. Donna told my mom she just wanted to die, she couldn't live this way and even if she did live it would be a miracle and how would she take care of her boys like this. She even told my mom she wanted to be with John. My mom tried to stay positive for her and stayed with her day in and day out until she had to come back to VA. My mom said things did not look good for her but she thought that she would pull through. A couple days after my mom got home Donna passed away. My mom got back on a plane and went to Donna's funeral. She said it was the hardest thing she ever had to go through because she had to see the sadness in Donna and John's kids eyes. It was horrific. After she came home from all this and started to get back into work and the groove of taking care of us, she said she could feel Donna. That something wasn't right. She often said she felt her at bedtime. That Donna must not be at peace where she is. Which kind of freaked us all out.

A couple of months later we moved to a new house and we were getting settled. My dad was on a business trip and I would often sleep in my mom's bed with her. One morning my mom was taking a shower and then we were going to run some errands. I just remember this look on her face, like she had seen a ghost. Then she was looking in the mirror and she turned her arm towards the mirror. I kid you not on her arm were finger prints as if someone grabbed her arm! She was not the least bit freaked like I was. She told me again that she really thought it was Donna. Donna's death was not settling, it was tragic and my mom felt like Donna did not die peacefully and she wanted my mom to help her.

After that encounter with whomever in the shower, my mom never felt Donna again. After a while my mom said she thought Donna was at peace finally.

What do you think? Do you think best friends and mothers and daughters are so closely connected that we know when one is at peace?