Loading ...
A little while ago a friend of mine’s mother passed away, and much like many things in the lives of people we know these days, I found out about it on Facebook. I felt for him as you could feel his grief in his postings, but you could also see the love around him to help him through.
His grief reminded me a little of when my mom passed away back in 2008 and the love of the people around me who helped me through, especially my then girlfriend and now wife, but as this passing occurred near June 6th, what would be my father’s birthday were he still alive, I had also been thinking of my dad a lot. With those thoughts floating around my head, an incident happened that really solidified my dad continuing to influence things around me, maybe even from beyond the grave.
My mom-in-law, Grandma Eleanor, had been building a puzzle (It was a Sprinkbok Puzzle, which also happened to be my dad’s favorite brand of puzzle) that my wife and I had given to her for her birthday. So close yet so far, she posted she had finished the puzzle but that a piece was missing, and I instantly thought of my dad. Yes, our family was a family of puzzle builders. My mom and dad were always building puzzles, and my brother even brought back this bazzilion piece puzzle back with him when he went to visit Europe, so big that we had to put it together on the pool table. When finished my parents had it framed and hung it in the living room. People were amazed it was actually a puzzle.
Blah, blah, blah, sure, we built puzzles, but the one thing that constantly happened with the puzzle building, and my dad was usually the prime instigator, was that he would “hide” one piece so that he would be the one to finish the puzzle, and now my mom-in-law was missing a puzzle piece from a brand new puzzle.
Low and behold my mom-in-law found the piece, by the sofa, and I couldn’t help but comment on her Facebook page that maybe my dad-in-law hid it there, as my dad would do, with the goal of being the one to finish the puzzle. Then again, maybe it was actually my dad who hid it there in the first place, from beyond the grave! Why the cosmic connection? Because my mom-in-law finished the puzzle, less one piece, on my dad’s birthday. Coincidence?
Maybe cosmic, maybe wondering if those who have died can influence our lives here on Earth, that missing puzzle piece brought back those thoughts of my dad, and some other cosmic things in my life. My wife, as our relationship was building, would say how she thinks my dad met her aunt in heaven, and they conspired for us to meet, a thought I sometimes wonder might be true because my reaching out to meet her was way outside of my realm of comfort. Something else had to push me to contact her. Then there was my mom, constantly thanking her Guardian Angel for help. Aunt Geraldine on my wife’s side can be classified as the “Patron Saint of a Close Parking Space” because somehow, when looking for a close parking spot, in her family, and oh hell, even I do it, we ask Aunt Geraldine to find a parking spot, and low-and-behold one opens up (Don’t get any crazy ideas of asking her, she’s busy enough finding good parking spots for my wife’s family!).
I know there are some people who can totally let go of those who pass away and believe that once dead you’re dead, but I’m not one of them. There are times I still ask my parents for help and a sign for guidance, when I do make it back to visit their graves I fill them in on what’s been going on even though that seems kind of weird because I figure they are probably watching anyway, and I’ll attribute things like a missing puzzle piece, and my wife and I hooking up, to my dad.
Many habits in our lives we attribute to the influence of those who have passed, but with my dad’s hiding another puzzle piece I’m wondering: Do you attribute unexplained, Earthly experiences to dead people?
That’s it for this one! L8R!!