She makes her presence known…
-by Marsha Abbott
Several weeks after the passing of my daughter I began to have encounters which challenged my thinking and deepened my faith. One night she came to me in a dream which was so real it awakened me. She looked, spoke, smiled and laughed in the same way; gave me the biggest hug and told me how wonderful I smelled. The hug felt so real, and I could smell her familiar perfume and touch her soft flowing hair. I was baking cookies with her sister in the kitchen and asked her to join us. She told me she was happy and then disappeared as I turned to lead her to the kitchen. I awoke feeling her presence in my room and tears of joy streamed down my face. That dream was unlike any other dream I’ve had. The reality was indescribable.
Two months later she appeared in a dream and gave me information which alarmed me because I had trouble making sense of it. Interestingly, she also appeared in similarly disturbing dreams to my husband and daughter that same evening. I believe the odds of that happening are highly unlikely. The three of us shared our experience the following day, feeling unsettled about our dreams. Two days later an event occurred which hurt our family immeasurably and I realized that she had tried to prepare us for what was going to happen. That is when we fully understood our dreams.
Numerous other things have occurred in the 7 months since her death. After a period of voraciously reading every book I can find on the subject, I am convinced that our loved ones never really leave us. I believe that death is but a transition from this physical realm to the next one, like walking through a doorway. The physical body is discarded, but the spirit continues on. Though my faith speaks to me of everlasting life, the additional reading I’ve done has been not only comforting, but educational. (see blog book list)
I feel compelled search for truth, which is one of hope in the knowledge that our loved ones are never really gone. Most of us are resistant to change and become comfortable to a ‘numbing existence’ which keeps us from seeking knowledge and opening ourselves up to the notion that may be much more out there. Our culture portrays comfort and convenience as the ultimate goals, but this thinking keeps us from seeking. Perhaps we need to crawl out on the ‘skinny branches’ because that may be where the answers truly lie.
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One of Marsha's two daughters daughters (19 years old) was killed in a gun accident in Sept ‘09. She maintains a facebook page titled A New Journey, dedicated to helping grieving parents. She lives with her husband in the Pacific Northwest.
2 comments:
I have felt the presence of my son since his death and know he watches over me like an angel. It is hard to talk about it with other people sometimes because they often look at me like I am crazy. But I felt that way when my brother died 10 years ago too. Maybe some people are more sensitive to it than others?
IT's funny that Mary Jacobs passed on this blog to me. As I sit here reading it I remember my own encounters with my own girls. They have been "around" for 9 years now. Right after their deaths they came to me in my bedroom as I slept we sat on my bed and talked and we played ring around the rosie for a short while as it was their favorite game, and then they told me everything was okay and they were fine. I still feel their presence, I know them by smell. There is a lingering woft of smoke, like someone is burning something nearby. I run around in panic and realize nothing is burning and know that I was just visited by my wonderful babies and wasted time panicking instead of talking to them...it happens everytime, you'd think after 9 years I would have figured it out already! The blog is a great idea...it's a wonderful thing to let other's know that there's hope for those who've just lost a child that they should know there's something out there making sure that their children are well taken care of after death and all they need to remember is to have faith and know that we're the ones who they are waiting for now in due time. That's why I love the movie "What Dreams May Come" with Robin Williams. It gives me hope!!! Thanks Marsha for your blog!
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