A Person I Will Always Remember: My Grandmother

After Death Communication Signs

I strongly believe that loved ones who passed away can send signs that let us know they are alright after passing on. I will never forget the couple of days after my grandmother had passed away because there were some things that happened that made my family believe that my grandmother was trying to send a sign informing us that she was alright. She died on the day before Thanksgiving in 2010 from lung cancer and on Thanksgiving Day, my family was at my house visiting like they do every year.

My family likes to joke that no matter what my grandmother would accidentally break something on Thanksgiving Day.

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One year, she tried to get a picture of our family eating so she stood up on a chair and after taking the picture, she lost her balance and fell backwards into our China closet breaking on of the glass doors. Luckily, she was alright from that incident but since that happened, every year she accidentally broke something or even more than one thing on Thanksgiving Day.

On our first Thanksgiving Dinner without my grandmother, which was the night after she died, my little cousins were running around when an elephant statue that my grandmother hated fell off of its stand and broke. Later that same night, we left a seat opened for her and placed a plate at her seat so she could be there in spirit. While cleaning up, that plate that was at her seat was somehow knocked over, hit the floor, and broke.

While I thought it was just a coincidence and an accident, some of my family members believed and joked that our grandmother broke something once again on Thanksgiving Day. Looking back, I still think it was just an accident because I feel that someone just accidentally knocked over that plate. As for the elephant, I warned my cousins to stop running around because they were going to end up breaking something. It might’ve been a huge coincidence or maybe my family over reacting because like every year, something had broken and one of the things that broke happened to be an elephant that my grandmother hated and was planning on throwing out but didn’t because my grandfather wouldn’t let her throw that elephant away.

My grandmother was often known as a prankster, she loved pulling pranks on us and getting a laugh out of it. Once everyone left after eating dinner on Thanksgiving night, my aunt, who was visiting from Texas, and I were in the living room while my mother and sister were doing the dishes. My aunt had asked me to turn off the porch light and watched as I did turn off the light. My aunt and I had never left the living room the entire time but when my sister came in, she asked me if I could turn off the porch light. I started to tell her that it was already off when I looked and saw that the light was indeed back on. My aunt and I looked at each other in disbelief because we were both in the living room the entire time after I turned off the light. There was no one else in the room so nobody in the house could’ve turn the light back on and even if someone in the house did, my aunt and I would’ve seen them. My aunt joked that my grandmother was trying to mess with our heads because we know that’s exactly something she would’ve done because she loved playing pranks on us. I also believe that by turning the light back on, that was her way of somehow trying to inform us that she was alright. When this happened, I felt a little surprised and somewhat frightened that this situation happened. As soon as we noticed the porch light was back on, I immediately started to feel the chills. However, looking back onto that night, I no longer feel frightened about it. Instead, I feel comfort that she was trying to reach out to us.

I found a website that talks about the after-death communication and the article is based off of a chapter from a book called, “Hello from Heaven” by Bill and Judy Guggenheim. The chapter from this book is called, “Butterflies, Rainbows: Symbolic ADCs” and according to this website, after death communication signs gives hope to people such as parents and the widowed. I learn from this website that the most common signs are butterflies, rainbows, flowers, and inanimate objects (Guggenheim). I found this website to be inspirational and the stories they provided in this chapter were truly beautiful. I was only nineteen when my grandmother died and I didn’t truly understand why she left us an after death communication but as I read the website, I began to understand the meaning behind these after death communication signs and knew that these signs were meant to be a blessing and a comfort to the loved ones of the deceased. One of my favorite stories from this website was written by a mother who recently lost her nine year old son in an automobile accident and she wrote:

“The night before the one-month anniversary of Steven’s death, I was carrying on in his room, saying, “Give Mommy a sign! Give Mommy a sign! The next day I was in his room again. I had gotten Steven a kitten three weeks before he was killed, and the kitten was on his desk. But I didn’t want anything touched on his desk because I wanted to leave Steven’s room exactly the way he had left it. Then the kitten knocked over a painted bottle that Steven had decorated! I quickly shooed the cat off the desk and picked up the bottle with my index finger in the neck. I felt some paper inside, so I pulled it out and opened it up. Steven had written in marking pen, “I love you, Mom!!!!” I was so happy that I had gotten my sign! It made me feel so ecstatic that I was laughing and crying at the same time (Guggenheim)” I felt that this after death communication was very special for the mother, who had just lost her son, not many people will get such a beautiful sign from their deceased loved one. I also feel like the kitten played a role in the mother finding the after death sign from her son by knocking over that bottle in the first place.

Another example of an after death sign was also written by a mother of a nine year old son, who was killed from an accident at his school.

The mother wrote, “I was crying one day and talking to Sean, begging him to please send me a sign that he was still with us. After sitting for a little while, I had a feeling to get up and go into his room. I just wanted to open a drawer and touch his clothes, to hopefully feel a little bit better. But I felt compelled to pull the drawer all the way out and to look underneath it. There was a dime! Then it hit me, “This is a message from you, Sean! This is you coming through!” When I saw that dime, I thought back to a little joke that we had between us. I used to give Sean $2.00 a week allowance if he kept his room clean and did what he was told. As I gave him the $2.00, I would say, “This is for being a good son.” Then Sean would go to the little frozen juice can he had decorated where he used to put all of his change. He would get a dime and give it to me, saying, “This is for you, Mom. This is your allowance for being a good mother!” So when I saw that dime, I felt very good because I realized this was Sean’s message to me. I had never found a dime in my life before. As it happened, I started finding a lot of dimes after that, mostly at work. Then I started finding them on special days – on Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day. I would find dimes when I really needed them – at a restaurant, in a parking lot, in front of a pet store, walking our dogs in the evening, in a hospital when my husband had surgery, at a museum, in a pizza restaurant, and getting off a train. One day I even found two dimes! My family wanted to know that Sean was with them too, so I asked him to please give them a sign. And soon they also started finding dimes!” (Guggenheim)

I really like this story that was posted from this website because it has such a special meaning for the mother to know that her son was alright after passing on. I also believe that this story was a beautiful reminder for the mother of her son whenever she found a dime. The stories on this website made me truly believe that our deceased loved ones can really send us a sign of comfort by letting us know they’re alright.

Finally, I will never forget the sign my grandmother left us on the night she passed away. My grandfather, uncle, and brother always went on a three day hunting trip after Thanksgiving. They decided they weren’t going to go after my grandmother passed away because they thought it was best to stay home with the rest of the family. My grandmother always loved the snow and that was her favorite part of the year. When we were driving home from the hospital after my grandmother passed away, we turned onto our road, there was an eight point buck standing in the middle of the road looking at our car then at that very moment, it started to snow lightly. My grandfather, uncle, and brother left for hunting right after Thanksgiving because they felt that my grandmother left them a sign saying she wanted them to go hunting and didn’t want them to stay home.