When I was a little girl, my great grandmother used to occasionally watch me while my mother was at work or sometimes stay the night over at our house, sleeping in my room. We always had great fun together and we were very close. We could actually have conversations with each other in our sleep.
As she got older, my grandparents could no longer take care of her and she was placed in a nursing home. I hated visiting her in there because it always made me too sad thinking about how she really was getting older, and I'm sorry to say I did not accompany my mother to the nursing home very often. On my great grandmother's birthday, March 11 (remember that), pretty much everyone in my family was either sick or had just been sick, so the only person who went to visit little grandma (our nickname for her because she was very short) was my grandmother, her daughter-in-law. Everyone else was afraid we would get her sick. That night my parents, little brother and I went out to dinner. When we got back there were two messages on our answering machine to call my grandmother. Immediately, we knew my little grandma had died. Yes, she died on her birthday and none of us had gone to visit her (talk about feeling guilty).
Little grandma was the first person I ever knew to die, I had just turned 14 years old the month before. I was absolutely heartbroken. I start to cry every time I think about her, even all these years later (I'm 21 now). The only thought that I could even try to comfort myself with was that she is an angel now and can watch over all of us. I truly believe that.
Just a few days after her funeral, I woke up in the middle of the night and looked at the rocking chair in the corner of my room. There I saw my little grandma, just sitting there looking at me. I freaked out and hid underneath my blankets for the rest of the night. The next morning I put the rocking chair in the basement. Thinking it was probably just a nightmare, I didn't tell my mom about my experience for quite a few years. Then, one night, we were talking about how we missed little grandma and I decided to tell my mom about what I had now decided must have been a dream. What my mom told me changed my mind forever.
Not only did my mother tell me that when our family has a habit of seeing a person that they were very close to shortly after they die, but she also told me she had a very similar experience with little grandma right around the time I did. Strangely enough, it was little grandma that told my mother this little titbit about our family. My mom did not actually see my great grandmother, but she felt like little grandma was there one night trying to tell her she was ok.
A couple of years ago, I had just broken up with my then boyfriend and I knew that it had really hurt him. I didn't love him, but I knew he loved me and I was thinking of taking him back. I was going to settle because, being almost 19, I wasn't sure if I would ever fall in love. A good friend of mine, as a last ditch effort to stop me from going back to my ex, told me she wanted to introduce me to a friend of hers. So we all went out and I met her friend, Phil. We hit it off great and at the end of the night we exchanged phone numbers. He called me the next day from work and we talked for five hours (luckily he was his own boss). The next night we went on our first date and I immediately had this feeling ... I didn't know what the feeling was right away but I felt I had to pay attention to it. Somehow during our date we got to talking about our birthdays, and guess when his birthday is? You got it, the same as my little grandma - March 11th. Phil is the only person I have ever met that shares her birthday. We have been dating for about three years now and will be getting engaged sometime within the next couple of months.
I have been in love with Phil since that very first date, I love him with all my heart. If I hadn't met him the night that I did, I would have settled for my ex and I would not be nearly as happy as I am. I truly believe my little grandma is watching over me. I believe that she knew I was supposed to be with Phil, that she helped us meet and the date of his birthday was a sign to let me know that I had met my one true love. I thank her everyday for helping me find him and I can only hope she knows how much I love her and how sorry I am that I never got to say goodbye.
skeptika's comment:
Well, Kristen, your comment made me think a little harder about putting comments under some other stories which I have posted recently. Sometimes stories don't need them, which is fine. Sometimes I am just too busy, which is a shame.
I have a friend, C., who is not at all the spiritual kind who tells a story a little similar to yours. When C. was very young her father, who had been the primary parent, the one who stayed home with her, committed suicide. She can't remember it herself, but her mother says that afterwards C. often used to hold her hands out as if to someone standing in the same room and call out "Pappa, pappa, why don't you come to me?" Her mother, of course, could see nothing and no-one.