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May. 30th, 2014 08:15 amI attended a funeral yesterday afternoon for the paternal grandmother of my nephews and niece. (My sister's ex-mother-in-law). While not all that close to her, I've known her since i was a teenager because her son (my sister's ex) was one of the gang of us that were friends. We often had house parties there and while she and her husband would make themselves scarce, we might see them at the end of the night when they came in to say hi on their way to bed. She was a lovely woman. She and her husband were married for 67 years!
The thing I wanted to write about wasn't that specifically but during the service, the minister mentioned that the last thing before she passed, she raised her arms up and spoke the name of the son she lost over 40 years ago. He died very tragically in a fire while at work on a barge and it changed the life of every one of the family members in how they dealt with the grief. Long story. Not important to this post.
It brings me to the concept of seeing the people you love who have already died just as you yourself are dying. Or not "you" per se but you know what I mean. It's said that people who are near death often see those that have already gone, and that those loved ones have come to help them pass. We don't really know if it's a dream state or an imaginary thing. Having said that, there are also those that believe that your loved ones visit you in your dreams because it's easier for you/us to accept that you see them rather than coming down the hallway into the bedroom and seeing them standing there before you. If you subscribe to that theory, then it's not a leap to accept that you could see your granny Rose smiling at you from the foot of your hospital bed.
I say all this because something similar happened to Dad at least twice in his last few days. Once he said he say his sister Fay in the room and then leave it and another time he said his nephew Peter had been to visit. Both of those people had died some years ago, within the last 10 years at least. We put it down to a dream or perhaps the medication but maybe it really happened. And maybe, Lorraine did see her son who she probably always believed she'd see again once she died.
The thing I wanted to write about wasn't that specifically but during the service, the minister mentioned that the last thing before she passed, she raised her arms up and spoke the name of the son she lost over 40 years ago. He died very tragically in a fire while at work on a barge and it changed the life of every one of the family members in how they dealt with the grief. Long story. Not important to this post.
It brings me to the concept of seeing the people you love who have already died just as you yourself are dying. Or not "you" per se but you know what I mean. It's said that people who are near death often see those that have already gone, and that those loved ones have come to help them pass. We don't really know if it's a dream state or an imaginary thing. Having said that, there are also those that believe that your loved ones visit you in your dreams because it's easier for you/us to accept that you see them rather than coming down the hallway into the bedroom and seeing them standing there before you. If you subscribe to that theory, then it's not a leap to accept that you could see your granny Rose smiling at you from the foot of your hospital bed.
I say all this because something similar happened to Dad at least twice in his last few days. Once he said he say his sister Fay in the room and then leave it and another time he said his nephew Peter had been to visit. Both of those people had died some years ago, within the last 10 years at least. We put it down to a dream or perhaps the medication but maybe it really happened. And maybe, Lorraine did see her son who she probably always believed she'd see again once she died.
