Signs, Signs, Everywhere there's Signs posted by jaded_heart @ 09:56 PM November 14, 2008

jaded_heart — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 21:56:30 -0000

Yes, they are incredible stories which explains half the reasons people are reluctant to discuss them. In my case I actually witnessed nothing but the appearance of a mysterious pad of paper with seemingly the perfect quotation we were searching for at precisely the right time. My mother, a professional woman with a bachelier's degree (not in a health care area) witnessed the mist but assumed it was a normal phenomenon when she mentioned it to me, stating only that she suppossed she had never noticed it when her parents and two older siblings had died in her presence. My best friend is a professional woman with a master's degree in adult education and a reputation to preserve in her community ... seeing a man she had known since childhood on the street a year after she attended his funeral was not an event she was willing to speak to anyone but me (and her mother) about and I can't blame her. Tell many stories like that to the wrong people and at the very least your career will suffer -- at the very worste they will call the men in the little white coats to come for you.

Signs, Signs, Everywhere there's Signs posted by LauraL @ 08:09 AM November 14, 2008

LauraL — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 08:09:25 -0000

Wow. those are incredible stories. I loved reading them. Thank you for sharing them!

Signs, Signs, Everywhere there's Signs posted by jaded_heart @ 07:16 AM November 14, 2008

jaded_heart — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 07:16:03 -0000

Laural- This is a wonderful topic, but a hard one. The signs are often delicate and very personal, the timing has to be just right to get people talking about it but I think it happens to most of us somewhere along the way whether we ever speak of it to others or not. Anyway, I'm finally able to talk about the signs we experienced. The first year after my father died I had three remarkable signs (but only one I witnessed personally). First, in the moments after his death my mother saw a delicate mist exit his mouth ... I was present but must have looked away at that exact moment (probably at the clock to note the time of death since that is one of my customary functions when I work as a nurse during a death). I will mention that I have heard of that phenomenon from a couple of other people on a rare occassion or two where I was present but have never personally witnessed it myself ... and my poor, distraught mother thought it was a normal, routine occurrence she was simply unfamiliar with.

The second thing was the only one I witnessed. Several months later my mother asked me to come over and spend the night so we could go order my father's (and hers) headstone in time for memorial day. We had never been able to discuss what should go on it and my brother was no help either ... we all just drew a blank. The second night my mother and I sat down at the kitchen table and in desperation drew an outline with the basic birth / death / marriage dates and names. We knew it was sadly incomplete but were at a loss of what else should go on it. I suggested we "google" memorial phrases and we were nearly ready to go get on the computer when we decided we needed a pad of paper to write down anything we might come across. There within arms reach of me lay a pad of personalized paper neither of us had ever seen. It was a favor from somebody's 50th anniversary celebration and had the names Garvin and Marcia Ann and anniversary dates 1952 - November 15 - 2002 (neither of us know a couple by that name and we've been unable to locate one in the two years since then plus the year we found the pad on the table was 2006). At the bottom of the pad was a quote of scripture: "and now these three remain, faith, hope and love, but the greatest of these is love. 1Corinthians13:3" We never searched the internet that night, our quote for the bottom of the tombstone had been otherwise inspired by whatever means. I still have the little printed pad of paper even though the couple remains unidentified.

Finally the third incident happened on the first anniversary of my father's funeral. A friend of mine is the director of the adult education center for that county. On her lunch hour that day on a clear, bright August day on Main Street she was stopped in lunch traffic on her way back to her office when she met somebody she knew coming the other way, they threw up their hand in greeting and she did the same before it registered that she couldn't be seeing what she was seeing barely ten feet away ... my father driving in the opposite lane of traffic speaking to her as he passed her. She stopped just short of rear ending the car in front of her. She was very upset that evening when she called me (I live 100 miles and the call is long distance so she waited until she got home that evening). She kept telling me he looked so good, that she was sure he was fine and wanted us to know it. We puzzled over the significance only five days ... until the morning they found her brother dead in his bed from a cerebral hemorrhage (coincidentally the same thing that led to my my father's death). I had felt slighted that I wasn't the one who had seen him all the way up to the second my best friend's brother had been found dead and then I (grudgingly) understood why it must have been important for her to be the one that got to see for herself that he was fine.

Like I said, the only sign I personally witnessed was the tablet lying on the table. The other signs were given to the two women closest to me. Since the first year there have been other things, but not so startling.

Signs, Signs, Everywhere there's Signs posted by Kate Rauch @ 05:39 PM February 24, 2008

Kate Rauch — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 17:39:03 -0000

LauraL,

This is a very cool discussion. Kind of gives me shivers; but in an interesting way. A thoughtful way.

My mom died a long time ago, and while I didn't see signs per say, or wasn't thinking this way, I will say to this day I find her in places, and this is reassuring, not freaky. What I mean is that her personality, wisdom, take on life, views --- are still within me, and surface when I'm facing important or difficult decisions or situations. I take them into account.

In this way the dead, our dead, go on living. . . It can be deeply sad, yet deeply rewarding, too.

(I don't always take her advice, alive or dead, but I sure like thinking about it.)

Signs, Signs, Everywhere there's Signs posted by LauraL @ 11:52 PM February 22, 2008

LauraL — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 23:52:03 -0000

Interesting idea of the gift of energy - I wonder if this is that time when one finds one's self "hiding" within something else, to avoid the pain, to ignore it for a while, when really, it's energy from that passed one.

SIgns, for sure. I truly believe in them.

Signs, Signs, Everywhere there's Signs posted by Rebecca @ 11:28 PM February 22, 2008

Rebecca — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 23:28:05 -0000

What a great question! Definitely messages! Let's see, we were sure that Mom was so happy to be out of the body that she was flying around in the ethers reeking havoc. - The water filter working and then not working for no reason, the electronics for the memorial system going on and off , there were like 10 things like that.

But then on a more profound level, there felt like a gift of energy that lasted a few months - like the ability to focus and work on something really personally important to me. The same thing happened when another very dear friend passed away a couple years ago. Do you know what I'm talking about? Have you had this sense as well? Or am I just a bit off....

Signs, Signs, Everywhere there's Signs posted by LauraL @ 11:25 PM February 21, 2008

LauraL — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 23:25:32 -0000

When my father died, I saw things. Signs, I decided they were, messages from him that he was still around and watching and loving me.

Things like a '66 Ford truck, out of the blue. A particular song on the radio (Brother Iz's Over the Rainbow/Wonderful World.)

But they are fewer and further between now. And I wonder: did I stop seeing them, or have the dropped off? A logical part of me wants to say that I consciously looked for them and now that sufficient time has passed, I'm not so much now.

But I rather like the idea of little messages. :)

What about you? Any signs/messages or such?