May 09, 2008 08:18 PM - I truly believe that we are able to feel the presence of our past loved ones at difficult and happy times of our lives. Sometimes God gives us reassurance through a memory from those past to be encouraged or strengthened when we need it most! Great job.

Jun 07, 2008 06:41 PM - I need to let you know about my Grandmother coming to say "Goodbye" to me, when she died. I was 12 years old, just about to fall asleep, about 10:30 at night, when she appeared in the doorway of my closet. She told me she loved me, and to be "a good girl". She then disappeared. Just after that the phone rang in the kitchen. I got up to answer it, and my mother was just getting to it, and I told her "Grandma just died". Well it was my father's mother, and he worked the night shift, so he was just about to wake up to go to work. My mother's reply was "DO NOT LET YOUR FATHER HEAR YOU SAY THAT!" She then answered the phone. It was my uncle, calling to inform us that my grandma had just died. When my mother hung up the phone, she looked me straight in the eye, and said "I don't even want to know how you knew that." We never discussed how I knew. Since then I have had wonderful experiences, and I have gone on to help hundreds, if not thousands of hospice patients die peacefully in the last twenty years. When people tell me "Jeesh! Your job must be depressing!" I tell them, NOT AT ALL, I look at life differently, and I am blessed to share a very special time with my patients while they transition to the next part of their life cycle. Sorry this is so long, but I just wanted to share.

Jun 16, 2008 09:48 PM - Reading these stories has given me chill bumps and it's 100 degrees here in TX.
My dad passed away here in my house Dec 22, 2007 from metastatic stomach cancer. I took care of him the last 3 months of his life, along with the help of my gracious husband. While Dad was alive he was talking about his brother sleeping in the bed with him, and this brother died some 70 years ago. My garage door opened and closed constantly where I had to go unplug it. The TV wouldn't shut off, just glowed white. Just weird stuff happening while he was dying for those 3 months. I was in the other room a couple of days before he died and he hollered out "Is Ray coming?" Ray is my brother and I just happened to be IM-ming him. I told Ray what dad said and he said, "uh oh I better get over there." He lives a few hours away and is a RN too. He came and on Friday night even though Dad wasn't conscious, me, my brother and sister all sat on the couch in the living room with Dad there and he would have been so happy to have us all together like that. Mom wouldn't come over or help with him much because I think emotionally she just couldn't handle it. Just stayed so distant. Well as I was reading your stories the TV in the other room kept coming on. I'm sitting here with tears streaming down my face as I write this. Anyway, after they took him to the funeral home, a couple of days later my sister, husband, and I went for the first viewing. We walked into the viewing room and I leaned over him and said, "Oh Daddy you look so good!!!" He was dressed up in a tie and coat and looked great. Just then my phone went off, and I said, "Oh great, this always happens at the worst times, when I'm at the doctor's office or something my phone goes off. Oh wait, it's a text message, from my brother. It says, 'Try to love mama the best you can. You are an angel." My sister said, "That was Daddy talking to you, I know it was. He told Ray to tell you that! That sounds just like him!" By then Ray was already back in New Mexico and did not have any idea we were in the viewing room.