Was it Real?

Last week, I had a visitor. He came into my room as I lay sleeping on my back. The visitor stood at the foot of the bed and pinched my big toes, waking me. It was my brother, Casey!

He was smiling and teasing me. We talked, though I don't remember what was said. He was happy and the whole thing seemed perfectly normal and natural. (Anyone knowing Casey would know there was little “normal” about him.)

When I realized what was happening, I said something like, "Hey, but you have been dead for four years!" (Actually, it will be five, in October.)

That realization startled me and I woke up to full consciousness. He was gone and I was alone in the room. I have no idea if that was a real vision, or just a dream.

It could have been real . . .

One evening some months after Sean died, Mom said she saw him walk down the hall and up the stairs, as she read in the living room.

When my son, Mark, was 11 or so, he woke up to see what he thought was his little brother, Christopher, playing a game on the floor. There was a cat next to him and cat poop, nearby. (They had cats.)

After telling him to go back to bed several times, Mark got down from the top bunk, stepped over the cat poop and turned on the light, only to find Chris asleep in bed; and the child, game, cat and poop, gone! It seems that a young child had died in that house, many years earlier.

When I was about four or five, we went to visit Grampy Brandt, Grandma's father. I remember him giving me and Sean peppermint candies that melted almost frothily in the mouth; his big smile, and the Mickey Mouse and Goofy wind-up toys that waddled across the table.

One morning when I was about seven or so, I looked up from brushing my teeth to see Grampy in the mirror, standing behind me! Though I had only met him that one time, there was no doubt about what I saw.

Almost sixty years later, I’ve not forgotten that smile and what a kind and loving man he was.

It was years before I told anyone about this experience. Mom and Dad were quite surprised that I remembered Grampy; they thought I was too young. Until I asked why we never went to see him anymore, no one told me he had died. (Take it to heart, parents; young children are more perceptive than you might think.)

I’m glad Casey came to visit. It is comforting to know he is happy and no longer bears the burdens he carried in life!