I wanted to write about the subject of death since it is something I have personally had to deal with this last month. In fact, this is the first time in my life that I have had to encounter dealing with the death of someone I love. I know that death is a difficult thing for all of us to handle and come terms with in life and the fact that we all know it is the only thing that is inevitable in life doesn’t make it easier either.  

I am someone who is very open and involved in spirit communication and spiritual healing. I have regular contact with my spirit guides and consult them almost daily for advice and guidance to help me through life’s daily challenges. When I begun developing myself as a medium I believed that one of the bonuses of that would be that dealing with the physical death of loved ones close to me would be a breeze. I thought that because, I was yet to experience the death of someone really close to me, and also because I know and believe in worlds beyond our 3-dimensional one and that people who die are transcending physical life into another plane of existence.  

In the case of losing my granny, I was mistaken when I thought handling death would be easier for me to deal with. I am not saying it was that difficult that I was unable to deal with; what I am saying is that the experience emotionally shocked me and affected me in terms of the way I see life, in a positive way of course!

I was not able to grasp the fact that my granny was physically gone and the fact that I did not get to say goodbye to her. She was home in Scotland and I was in Montreal when she passed. Even though part of me knew and believed I would get to communicate with her again and that ‘goodbye’ would never really be ‘goodbye’, I still longed to have had the opportunity to say the things I wanted to say to her at least before she passed away.  

I recall the last time I spoke to my granny; it was by phone and not long before she passed. To fill you in, she had cancer and knew she was going to die. Circumstances prevented me from going to Scotland to see her before she died and that prompted the subject of the last conversation we shared before she passed, during which I told her “Granny, I am sorry, I may not see you before you go!” to which she replied “Oh, don’t you worry about that, I can still see you because miracles happen you know!”

I am a great believer in miracles believe we all experience miracles everyday in life, but this kind of talk from my granny was not something I was accustomed to. Let’s just say, she was someone who was very logical, and down to earth and talks of miracles and the spirit world never really came into our conversation much, except for the occasional ghost story she liked to share with my sister and I. Still she was a rational woman and life after death was not something we spoke of in a serious way. Another thing is that that my granny had no real idea of what I do or that I am involved in with healing or mediumship. At least, that is as far as I know anyway, but I do tend to keep quiet about the things I am involved with when it comes to my family because they tend to be quite limited in what they choose to believe in terms of life and most of them have no intention of changing that either, so I prefer to keep quiet and life is peaceful all round!  

So considering what my granny said to me, it is not something I have never heard before, but coming from her made it even more profound because she was not really involved in anything very spiritual in nature. She even asked to have her funeral service a non-religious ceremony; she preferred to have what is called a ‘Humanist’ service where someone from the Humanist Society comes and talks only about her and the life she lived. It was a wonderful service actually which did her and her life justice. So as you can see, my point was that she was not spiritual in nature; she was an extremely grounded and down-to-earth person. This is why her words penetrated more deeply.

I said before; I am involved in spirit communication on a near daily basis. But coming from her, the words became more profound and significant because it reinforced the fact that no matter who we are and what we believe in, what race or religion we believe in when it comes to the time we face death, we are forced to face the same reality in terms of our own spirit and recognize that life really does go on beyond the physical. We will see that we are not merely a physical human being who will be no more after our body dies, and that our spirit and soul will live on when we pass away from life in our physical incarnation.

I believe my granny was becoming aware that she had the ability to communicate with me through her spirit form when she passed away before she did actually go. I believe that at that time she had already been visited by spirits of those close to her in her own family who already passed; who were waiting for her to pass into being spirit. I believe this is why she knew she would see me after she passed. She didn’t express to me directly that she had been visited by her family who passed before her, but she mentioned their presence to other members of my family who were by her side in hospital before she passed. They believed her because she never lied, she was always very honest and that is why we trusted her so much. You could argue saying maybe she was in an altered state or drug induced oblivion, but believe me, from what I am told, she still had her wits about her and she knew exactly what was going on.

So now time has passed and my granny is gone, she is free at last and is in peace from her suffering. You will be happy to know she did keep her promise to me and I did see her after she passed, there were several times in fact of which she made her presence known to not only myself, but other members of the family and on one occasion when we were all in the same room to witness the phenomena. She promised us all she would come after she passed and told us to look out for the signs and we would know she was there. She was never one to break a promise after all! Her visits were a comfort to all of us and especially helped me accept that she was physically gone, but not completely as she was alive and well on another level of existence, happy that her time had come to move forward into new aspects of life and existence. It was time to let her go and let her be free from her earthly ties.

I felt her presence around after her death and up until the day after her funeral. On the night of her funeral, I dreamt of her walking toward a door of light, holding a scroll of paper in her hand, representing all of what she had done and accomplished in her life that passed, and now was the time for her spirit to return to her soul. Waiting for her was a tall male figure of whom I did not recognize. She turned round one last time, waved to me happily and entered the doorway, the door closed behind her and as the light diminished, I awoke suddenly. I knew she had passed now and felt her presence was gone. I felt a pang of sadness with that, but I was satisfied knowing she felt happy, knowing she lived a full and prosperous life, with no regrets and now she was ready to pass to the next level of her life experience.

Handling the death of my granny was a tough and very emotionally challenging experience for me. My granny helped me in a great and significant way in my life and I will be forever grateful for her help and support. She was someone I was able to confide in when I was unable to confide in anyone else. She made it easy for you to open up, you could trust her because she was always selfless, honest and direct. Even if it stung, she would tell you the truth and did so with your best interests at heart. She was a person with a great, strong and proud character who was good humored, witty and funny; she had a sharp tongue too and never held back when she had something to say. That was one of the things we loved about her because she kept us all in line! Another thing I loved about her was that she was somehow always able to see the good in you, no matter what you did, and she was especially good at that during times when you were unable to see the good in yourself. That was one of her gifts she shared with myself and others and her advice and guidance was invaluable to me at a time in my life when I seriously needed help and support.

It is funny because so many of us search our whole lives looking for meaning and purpose and it is so often staring us right there in the face where we least expect it. My granny was one of the people who brought purpose into life for all to see. Just knowing she was there for us when we really her was a comfort and she always had a shoulder to lean on and an ear to listen to us when we needed to be heard. What is life if we can’t be there for reach other after all? What else is there to live for if not to help each other, guide each other, uplift each other, love each other and share ourselves with each other? Personally, I feel that life lacks substance without those things.

Many people have crossed my path in life that has helped me learn to about myself and see the purpose of living; granny was one of those people. If life’s purpose is really about being there for others, helping others, guiding others and loving others then she definitely fulfilled life’s purpose and I feel happy and honored to have been loved and guided by a person like her.

I would like to ask if those of you reading this would please spare a few moments to send a thought to my granny and all other people who have recently passed or those who are ill and know their time to pass is coming. Please send them thoughts in light, love and peace to help ease their passing if they have passed, or to help diminish any fear or pain that those among us feel, knowing their time to pass is coming soon.

Our human life here is short in comparison to the eternal life of our soul. That does not make human life any less sacred. I believe human life is just as sacred as the life we worship in heaven, paradise, the spirit world and any other ‘after-life’ places believe to in as being ‘divine’. I believe divinity is not found in a place we go to after death, I believe it is a feeling inside of us which never dies, and the spark of life that’s always there that lives on after death. We can always access that feeling just by learning to love and help ourselves and each other.

My granny died, but she is far from being dead. To me she is still alive no matter where she is because I still feel love and respect toward her, in fact I feel even more love for her now than I ever did because of ways in which she touched me and was still able to find ways to help and support me deal with her death even after she physically died. That was a miracle in itself and now after my recent experience I feel I am able to relate to her in a different way now, not just as a human being, but as an aspect of light, spirit and soul.

A last few words I would like to mention is that just because we know life goes on after death and that we never really die, that is not an excuse to take life for granted. Do not waste another breath, value your life today and try to be the best person you can be for yourself and for the people you love around you. Physical life is short so do not waste it then feel regrets for what you maybe could have done when you know your time to pass is coming round the corner. You are alive today so live your life now, and when it is your time to transcend to the next level of existence, you will do so with dignity, satisfaction and in peace knowing that you lived to the best of your ability without not wasting opportunities and helping yourself and others to feel worthy, happy and fulfilled at all times. Do this and I am sure you will pass away in peace, knowing you have really lived a full and prosperous life, just as my granny did.