I Really Did

Colours

“The greatest darkness is beneath the lamp itself.”
  Robert Van De Weyer, CELTIC PARABLES, Stories, Poems & Prayers

Drying Off

A few weeks ago, I was walking on our little trail which winds through the woods behind our home. I, as usual, had Sue in my thoughts. She loved to walk in these woods.

​This particular day, I stopped, and looked at a white birch branch which rested on the colourful, leafy ground. For some reason this branch took on a special significance. It became more than just a part of this specific moment. It felt different, and yet it was the same branch.

How many times had Sue and I walked by this branch? As I thought about this question, I felt as if I was praying. Reaching out, not sure to whom, but I think I was attempting to get a connection with a reality that was beyond our three dimensional world.

Little Mobile Home Surrounded with Colour

Maybe, I was trying to push the past and the present together, so that they were one, and became like a two part Trinity. They were slipping in and out of the paper thin reality that, separates us from the other dimension; the place that Sue might be living in.

In Salmon Pool's Cabin

Let Me In

I believe that there are areas of this universe that can only be understood and experienced through meditation and prayer. 

​So, this branch had been lying on the side of the trail for, who knows how long. It had, somehow, grabbed my attention, and got me doing some deep meditation on what had been and what now was. After-all, this branch, like so many objects, was a direct connection to when Sue was still alive.

Morning Walking Trail

I’ve just returned from Sue’s Memorial Service. It was in Cobourg, Ontario. The folks that organized it did a great job and the hall was more than packed with Sue’s family and friends.

​When I spoke at the service, I mentioned that I had seen Sue’s spirit in a field. 

I know at that time, the morning after she disappeared, that I was tired, in shock and experiencing a whole whack of other emotions. However, after much thought, I can declare that I was not seeing an hallucination, and was not projecting. I have only seen one ghost, and it was Sue. I was so fortunate.

Our Road

Hiking Salmon Pool's Trail

Why am I fairly sure that I saw Sue after she’d passed on? 

​Well, while I trudged through the field, which was covered in fresh snow, I was on the phone with my son. At the same time I was continuously trying to unwrap the leash from around Dominic’s legs, so I was rather busy to be seeing an hallucination.

Salmon Pool's Trail

Salmon Pool's Hermit

 While I was speaking to my son, I told him that I was seeing a person who looked like they were either searching for Sue or were hunting. 

Where I Go To Make Sense of My World

However, there are other reasons why I am quite sure that I saw Sue?

​You see, although I haven’t seen another ghost, I have had other strange, after-death experiences, and they were definitely not hallucinations. 

Dominic Running Free on Salmon Pool's Trail

One time, I was taking a shower, only one or two days after my father died. There I was in the tub, my rubber ducky and I, singing a sad song when suddenly, there came, shooting out of my side, two coins. They tumbled to the tub floor. I picked them up, and put them on the side of the sink. I can’t remember what denominations they were, but I know they weren’t just dimes. My father wasn’t cheap.

Anyway, I put them on the sink, and explained to myself that they probably fell off the tub’s ledge. I thought that maybe Sue had left them there. 

Creature Under Tree

Well, I climbed back into the tub and continued to shower. Presto! Another coin shot out of my side. It came from nowhere that I could explain. So I put it down as virtual-dad mail.

​I will mention one more event. 

Off Salmon Pool's Trail

A next door neighbour had died, and a few days later, while I was brushing my hair, I discovered that a looney had been nesting in my curls. I shouted, “Sue, a looney just came out of my head.”

​“Figures,” she shouted. 

​I still have some of these coins, and I could, if I so desired, deposit them in a bank. 

Windy Morning Over St. Lawrence River

The coins were as real as any bank note and came out of a place that doesn’t deal with low blood sugar, projections, hallucinations or shingles. That’s why my seeing Sue seems just as logical as my body becoming part of the Canadian Mint.

​By the way, Sue left no tracks in the fresh snow, and the trail I saw her walk/float up, was close to where they found her glove.

​So, I’m going to rest my case. You can take it to the bank.

Clouds Over St. Lawrence River