My Easter visit

I will preface this to say that I have always believed in life after death, reincarnation and spirits. I grew up in a haunted house. Doors opened on their own. Things moved. A sibling saw the spirits of two young children. The usual haunting sort of things.

My Mother first visited me two days after she died nearly four years ago. I was home alone with Paulo-who had just turned 2-I was doing laundry while Paulo watched some good old Thomas the Tank Engine. While I was in the laundry room he was a few feet away from me in the upstairs family room. After a few minutes of sorting, folding and swapping out the laundry I heard the volume on the stereo go up significantly. I left the room and scolded, albeit gently, my toddler and told him not to touch the knobs on the stereo. He looked at me blankly and continued with his Thomas fix. I went back into the laundry room and again the volume went up. This time I will admit I scolded a little more vigorously. However I did notice that when I left the laundry room Paulo was on the couch and not next to the stereo unit, but really, toddlers are remarkably fast so I was not surprised by his stealth! What happened next raised the hair on my arms. I was walking away from the family room, laundry basket in hand, and the volume shot up a 3rd time, I turned to see my child sitting quietly on the couch having not moved a muscle. Out loud I told my Mother, OK, I get it, and I heard her voice in my mind telling me to stop feeling sorry for myself. Typical Sharon style.

The second visit was a year or so after her death. Paulo and I were in the car driving in for him to go to school and me to go to work, and I was overcome by a sensation of floating. Now, I'm behind the wheel of a car, this is not a good time for an out of body experience, thankfully it didn't last long. This time the message was that she was worried about my Father.

Last Mother's Day we were getting ready to leave for brunch. Dimitri and Rene were upstairs. Paulo was hanging out under my feet while I put on my lipstick in the downstairs bathroom. There's only four of us in our family and all four were accounted for. While in the bathroom Paulo and I heard his Toy Story RC start to move around. He shouted, "who's playing with my car!?" He can be a bit possessive! He and I left the bathroom at the exact same time and walked into the living room to be greeted by....no one. But all the same RC was moving back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. Paulo was thrilled and shouted that RC was ALIVE! Just like the movie!! I...was a little freaked out. I felt though that it was a simple hello, I'm thinking of you visit. No serious message conveyed. Just a hello.

On this past Easter Sunday my boys were all upstairs. Rene and Dimitri were saving the world from aliens on Halo. Paulo had planted himself in the guest room to read some books. I....was working. It was a holiday but there were still groceries to be cleaned, chopped and prepped and things to be put away. I picked up a handful of things that had been improperly discarded on my kitchen counter and walked toward the den to put them away. I paused at the stairs to yell upstairs to check on Paulo. I wanted to be sure he wasn't sitting there watching Rene and Dimitri blow up alien creatures, after all, I'd like to sleep at night not be up with a nightmare stricken child! Satisfied he was not watching the grisly game I turned around to see RC move out from his parking place and turn a corner....pointing directly at me. Again, every single hair on my body stood up. I felt this odd sensation of energy moving up and down my body. I immediately had the sense of being embraced by my Mother. When it was over I was filled with a sense of loss, a renewed sense of mourning, it was a painful reminder of all the things I've missed out on since my Mother died. But there was also a reminder that love does not die when the physical body gives out, that I find reassuring and comforting. I welcome her visits. She's also visited through dreams but I find her waking visits to be a true blessing.

It's an age old question isn't it? What happens when we die? What happens to the soul when the body can no longer serve as a vessel for spiritual growth? What are we here for anyway? I hope that my Mother is simply healing right now. Healing her soul before she comes back down to Earth for another go round. Learning from her mistakes. Processing her successes. Growing. And when her soul is ready it will make the trek back into physical form and continue its spiritual journey. Good luck on your next go round Mom, perhaps we will cross paths again.