After my grandma died.....

My grandma passed away on April 1, 2009. I hadn't seen her too much in the past 12 years, as I was raised as a JW, and left when I was 20 or so, and they don't really associate with you after you leave, unless you're family. So my grandma would talk to me when she'd see me, and always made it known I was welcome to come visit. She was a sweet lady, I miss her a lot.

Anyway, when she was in the ICU, the day she passed away, I was in the room alone with her, I believe, when she actually passed over. The nurses were doing things with her IV's, and there was a doctor in there, and her eyes were slightly open, and glassy, staring off into .. well, whatever. I was leaning over talking to her, whispering in her ear, thanking her for being the wonderful grandma she was... I told her "Now you can see what's REALLY on the other side".. as she'd lived most of her life with JW beliefs (which I think are crazy).. and I honestly believe it was then that she died.
After that, all the family came in, and we stood around her body, and just let her go..
After that, my aunt (not a JW) and I were at my grandparents house getting a few things, and we were standing in the kitchen talking, when in the entry way, something just "fell" off a table. I'd seen the items on there earlier, they were recordings of JW music. And when I'd seen them, they were no where near falling off the table, or I'd have pushed them more to the center of the table. But it kind of shocked us a bit. We laughed, and acknowledged grandma (just in case it was her.. lol)

Fast forward to later that summer, I went with my son to Calgary with my aunt to visit. On Saturday, my aunt took me and my cousins way out to the 'ole family farm'.. We walked around and went to an old Cemetary to see old family headstones and stuff..
Later that night we were sitting around in my aunts kitchen playing games (in a busy calgary neighborhood), and thru the window came the very strong scent of a skunk.. ( not wacky tobacky ). My aunt had never EVER smelled that there before, but it was reallly strong.
Later that evening, we had finished playing a game, and someone said "What should we do now?" Well, out of my aunts mouth, in a really different voice, lower than usual, she said kind of quietly "Go to bed."
We all looked at her, and laughed and said "What?? Why would you want to go to bed?" She had no idea what we were talking about, and got really offended that we were laughing and said she DIDN'T say that. She still swears to this day that she didn't say "Go to bed.", and has absolutely no recollection of it. She doesn't do drugs and had maybe a couple of light beers, but wasn't impaired really.. It was all we could talk about for the rest of the night, cause it was so out of place and strange!

Later that night, my cousins (in separate cars) were heading off to my one cousins house, (he lives in calgary, his sister doesn't, but was staying at his house) She was going to leave her car parked in front of my aunts house, and was going to pick it up the next day. Last minute she changed her mind, and took her car.
That night, there was a really intense storm that blew thru Calgary, and right where my cousins car was parked (the one that doesn't live in town) a big tree came down and crashed right where it would have been, taking up most of the street!

It was just such a weird bunch of little events, and it all still stumps us, makes us wonder if that's my grandma letting us know that she's "there".. and to let us know that there IS life after death, not in the way JW's believe!

I swear, sometimes I can feel her fingers run thru my hair the way she used to do it..
It might all be a bit crazy, or completely un-related, I don't know, but I just had to post it somewhere and see what others thought..

Thanks for the post...I dont think its crazy at all

About 2 months ago something similar happened...My grandma and great grandma were both living in a nursing home together...Well they were sharing a room together and my great grandma passed away...When it happened my grandma said (before she new great grandma had died) that she just saw "big daddy" (great grandmas deceased husband and grandmothers father) walk into the room and stand next to great grandmas bed...My aunt was also in the room when it happend and saw nothing...but heard my grandmother say that..He walked in and was standing next to her bed looking over it, and she could see him just as good as she could see anybody that walked into the room..and after a few seconds he was gone and thats when my great grandma passed away...My mom later asked her again about that and she remembered it and still to this day says that is what she witnessed...and she has never said or seen anything in the past like that..coincidence? I dont know...but for her to literally pass away at that moment after she said he just left is a little...well...cool..

I definely think there is something more after this, and that story just confirmed it for my belief...dont know what exactly but i dont think anybody does...not that i didnt believe before but when you hear something like that from someone you know/love/trust just gives me a lot more hope and happiness

reply to post by BDIDDY425

Wow, that's incredible!! I've heard of that happening before, and I totally believe that there's something to it.. know what I mean? Whatever happens after we leave here, doesn't cause me any fear at all.. I know there's a 'there', but i'll find out what it is when I get there..

reply to post by Weeeden


That is a very touching story, thank you for posting it. I believe you are right, it was your Grandma telling you she is there and watching. Perhaps she wanted you all to go to bed to help protect you from that storm that night and used your aunt to communicate that to you. I would like to think there is someone watching over me.

reply to post by tsawyer2


You know, i never thought about it that way.. Great way of putting it!! Its something that will definitely stay with me forever! Thank you for your kind words

reply to post by Weeeden


Exactly how i feel...I mean ive never really feared death..but i guess it was always at the back of my mind...now I really have no fear (not just because of that incident)...and its such great feeling...all you can do is live in the moment and appreciate the little things in life...were not here that long so why worry about when your not going to be here or stress over trivial things...just try to enjoy your short time here

Clearly your grandma loves you and the family she is watching over you.

reply to post by BDIDDY425


Biddy, I have heard stories similar to yours and believe your Grandma when she says what she saw. I don't have a story like that to contribute. The only time I was in a position like this was when my mom passed away when I was 26. Unfortunately it's not a feel good story. I was in her hospital room when she was going into and out of a coma. During her final month, I drove the 500 miles back and forth from Virginia to Pennsylvania every week to be with her. I was sitting near her bed, probably looking sad and worn out, when she came out of her coma, looked at me and said, "My Jimmy, My Jimmy. What? Are you mad at me?" She slipped back into her coma before I could say, "No Mom, I love you." Those were the last words she ever said to me, but I hope that even in her coma she heard my response, and I have to believe she did because it would be a terrible guilt for me to carry around thinking that my Mom died thinking I was angry with her for being so sick.

Hope that isn't too much of a downer for this thread, but it feels good just to get it off my chest.

reply to post by tsawyer2


Awwwww *HUG* I wonder what she was thinking when she said that.. Your mom definitely knows you weren't mad at her...

A touching story, thank you for posting it. I think your assumption of it being your Grandma making her presence known is a safe one to make. I haven't had any relatives visit me after passing away, not in ways that were obvious enough that I noticed them anyways, but I do have a similar story told to me by somebody I'm very close with.

An uncle of mine told me this story once. Well he's not technically my uncle anymore. He was married to my dad's sister for 10 years, but they divorced about 6 years ago. He and I were always very close, and still are to this day, so he's still family to me, hence why I still refer to him as an uncle. But I'm starting to ramble, a habit of mine, let me get to the story.

I'll preface it by saying that my uncle is the type of guy who's really easy going, honest, and generally not the type of guy who's going to make up a tall tale for no reason. I've always trusted him 100%, so I have never had any reason to doubt his story. His father was killed one night in a car crash when he was very young, 11 I believe was his age at the time but I could be off by a year or two. He was home with his mother at the time and he was just getting ready to head to bed for the night. His mother was downstairs, waiting on his father to come home after working late.

My uncle told me that he walked into his bedroom and saw his dad sitting there on the edge of his bed, clear as day. Just sitting there and looking up at him, as if he was ready to say goodnight like usual. This of course confused the heck out of him, since he knew his dad hadn't come home yet. He said he wasn't scared though, definitely in the middle of a "WTF?!" moment yes, but he didn't feel any fear at all. So he got into his bed and just laid there looking up at his dad, who didn't say anything, or do anything except sit there and smile down at him. He told me they just sat there for a while, around 20 minutes or so, then his dad got up and walked out of his room shortly before he finally fell asleep.

The next morning he woke up to find his mom sitting at the kitchen table, looking like she hadn't even been to bed yet, and obviously very upset. When he asked her what was wrong she told him that his dad had been killed in a car accident on his way home the previous night. Naturally being so young he couldn't make sense of the situation at the time. But of course later on he realized that unless he was seeing things, that must have been his dad saying a final goodbye as best he could.

To this day whenever the story comes up in conversation he still can't recount it without getting teary eyed. So was it a dream? Was it real? I don't know. All I can tell you is that my uncle is 100% sure that it was real, there's no doubt in his mind that his dad really did come home for a final goodbye.

Edit: I should clarify...I have had experiences with the paranormal before, just not any where I could positively identify exactly who I saw. I'll be posting a recent one soon, once I hit my 20 post mark and can create new threads.

reply to post by tsawyer2



I dont think you need to feel guilty that your mom died thinking you were angry...I think that is a normal feeling/question a parent would feel leaving their child...maybe your mom somehow knew she was about to leave and wondered if you were upset at her for that...but i dont think you should feel guilty....shes probably watching over you now and wouldnt want you to feel that way, and you know she wouldnt want you to feel that way it would probably make her sad...i dont know what your beliefs are and i dont think anybodys is any righter than another...but in my heart I feel there is something more going on that is probably impossible for us to fully understand...

Even if im wrong but I live my life thinking and believing that then my life i feel is happier having those beliefs...My father died when i was 18 also and I had some guilt that went along with it...but as i got older and accepted his death as part of life, it took the weight off of my shoulders...and if you believe there is something more then knowing that this is just one of the many chapters of whatever this experience is life/death all of that then it helps tremendously...its not something you can fake either...I think when you really believe and feel it in your heart you start to appreciate your own life even more...I could be wrong...but if i am so what nothing wrong with living your life that way..and if i die an nothing happens so be it...but if you live your life that way and it helps make the world a better place then why not live it thinking that way...definitely dont beat yourself up over it...i would almost look at it as a way she was able to say goodbye to you

OH Griff.... That gave me "real life" tears streaming down my face.. What a touching story.. I could sit and just cry and cry over that, but I don't want to answer questions from my little guy, so I'll keep it inside.. That's just amazing. Your uncle must think about that every day..

Oh I'm sure he does. I know if I had an experience that powerful, it'd be on my mind pretty much 24/7. And like I said, I have no way of knowing for sure if it was real, a dream, or whatever. But I think what really counts is that he believes in what he saw, and that having that experience probably made dealing with that tragic event in his life a little easier to handle, in one way or another anyways.

Great post. I was very close to my mother. She didn't drive in her later years so I always took her everywhere and I lived right down the street with my two children who were extremely close to her as well. She had been sick for a while and was never one to go to the doctor even though she was a diabetic, never enough money, you know. Anyway I had spent some time with her at the hospital but needed to get home to my little ones. The doctors had told us that she'd probably need to be on oxygen for the rest of her life but we would be able to take her home within a day or so, so I'd left feeling confident that we would do just that. I have a large family, there are 9 of us kids and my 3 older sisters had decided to stay in town for the evening and spend time with mom to keep her company. She ended up having a massive heart attack and they weren't able to save her. Devastating. Skip forward to the next evening. My family was all together at my parents house and we were looking for moms paperwork, insurance, birth certificate, ssn, etc. One of my sisters pulled a key out of the bottom of moms purse and said "Who does this Ford key belong to?" I looked at it and said "hey thats mine" then I looked up at the wall where she had a key hook. All of us kids kept our extra keys at moms, in case ever needed. I wondered why it wasn't hanging up there since I'd never needed her to get it for me for any reason. Anyway, it was a long day, my kids were exhausted and hungry and sad and I thought I'd take them to get a burger and a movie and go on home. Stopped to get the movie first and when I pulled out to head to the burger place I hit a pot hole which flattened my tire. I pulled over at the first business and used the pay phone out front to call my moms house to get one of my family to come help me change the tire. (no, I'd never done it before) My brother in law said he'd be right there and told me to get the spare out. I put my key in the trunk and turned it and damn if it didn't break off in the lock. It was raining and when my brother in law pulled up I was standing there bawling. It was sthe only key I had for the ignition as well and with such a horrible day as it was I just lost it. Wonderful person that he is, he hugged me and said "You're forgetting something" I didn't know what he was talking about. "The extra key in mom's purse." he said. I had stuck it in my pocket! "I think she must have known you'd need it." It was a trip to say the least. That night my smoke alarm kept going off. No smoke or fire though, so I felt like she was trying to get my attention.

reply to post by Griff56


Thank you for that post, it was a touching story and as I believe so true.

Sharing that with us took a little courage and openess to the community here.

I respect that, as I do all the posts in this thread. Writing about emotional things and posting them on the internet is a tough thing to do.

Originally posted by Christarella
Great post. I was very close to my mother. She didn't drive in her later years so I always took her everywhere and I lived right down the street with my two children who were extremely close to her as well. She had been sick for a while and was never one to go to the doctor even though she was a diabetic, never enough money, you know. Anyway I had spent some time with her at the hospital but needed to get home to my little ones. The doctors had told us that she'd probably need to be on oxygen for the rest of her life but we would be able to take her home within a day or so, so I'd left feeling confident that we would do just that. I have a large family, there are 9 of us kids and my 3 older sisters had decided to stay in town for the evening and spend time with mom to keep her company. She ended up having a massive heart attack and they weren't able to save her. Devastating. Skip forward to the next evening. My family was all together at my parents house and we were looking for moms paperwork, insurance, birth certificate, ssn, etc. One of my sisters pulled a key out of the bottom of moms purse and said "Who does this Ford key belong to?" I looked at it and said "hey thats mine" then I looked up at the wall where she had a key hook. All of us kids kept our extra keys at moms, in case ever needed. I wondered why it wasn't hanging up there since I'd never needed her to get it for me for any reason. Anyway, it was a long day, my kids were exhausted and hungry and sad and I thought I'd take them to get a burger and a movie and go on home. Stopped to get the movie first and when I pulled out to head to the burger place I hit a pot hole which flattened my tire. I pulled over at the first business and used the pay phone out front to call my moms house to get one of my family to come help me change the tire. (no, I'd never done it before) My brother in law said he'd be right there and told me to get the spare out. I put my key in the trunk and turned it and damn if it didn't break off in the lock. It was raining and when my brother in law pulled up I was standing there bawling. It was sthe only key I had for the ignition as well and with such a horrible day as it was I just lost it. Wonderful person that he is, he hugged me and said "You're forgetting something" I didn't know what he was talking about. "The extra key in mom's purse." he said. I had stuck it in my pocket! "I think she must have known you'd need it." It was a trip to say the least. That night my smoke alarm kept going off. No smoke or fire though, so I felt like she was trying to get my attention.

Now that, Christarella, almost made me cry.

Once again in this thread, circumstantial proof someone or something is looking over us. I don't know what it is really; I'm not a member of any organized religion and don't intend to be, but there is something out there looking over us.

reply to post by Christarella


Very touching, thanks for sharing it. It's funny how some things that can seem so small at first, can end up having such a huge meaning later on.


reply to post by tsawyer2


Thanks for your kind words, they're definitely appreciated.

I'm generally not shy about sharing experiences that I, or others I know, have had. There's a few that I mostly keep to myself, but most of the time I'm willing to share things without much hesitation. I also know there's always going to be some people that read that story and think "Pffft...what BS!" or "Ha! This guy got hoodwinked!" But to be honest, that doesn't really bother me. I'm not here to convince the world of anything, I'm simply here to hang out and do pretty much exactly what we've all been doing so far in this thread.

Originally posted by Griff56
I'm generally not shy about sharing experiences that I, or others I know, have had. There's a few that I mostly keep to myself, but most of the time I'm willing to share things without much hesitation. I also know there's always going to be some people that read that story and think "Pffft...what BS!" or "Ha! This guy got hoodwinked!" But to be honest, that doesn't really bother me. I'm not here to convince the world of anything, I'm simply here to hang out and do pretty much exactly what we've all been doing so far in this thread.

Well said Griff!! I'm not shy either, you may have noticed that. I'm not here to convince anyone of anything either. It's one of the reasons I like our OP as well.

On an on topic theme. And thank you all for your posts about my last moments with my mother.

Shortly after my mom died, I did dedicate a star to her. I love looking skyward anytime I have the chance. You see, by dedicating a star to her, I felt I could and have been successful at bringing memories of her home to me every time I sighted that star.

I chose Rigel.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/f5d4cfedabef.jpg[/atsimg]

Whenever I look up in the sky and see this blue giant, the brightest in my favorite constellation Orion, I think of her and the memories we have had.

I think some people would call it transference, but I think of it as Insurance.

When I am old, and I can't remember what I had for dinner last night, I think I can always look in the sky and remember her.

Might be a technique others can use.

reply to post by tsawyer2


Regarding your dedicating a star to your sweet mother... About 8 or 9 years ago, my husbands cousin, her 9 year old son, 2 year old daughter, and 16 year old nephew all died in a car accident together... it was absolutely devastating..
After that happened, my husband and I were outside one night, and for some reason the Big Dipper stood out to me.. as we were talking about them. So ever since then, every time I see that constellation, I think of those 4, and the horrible loss that our family suffered..

I'm sorry to hear you and your family had to go through that tragedy.

It's amazing to me what a profound experience looking at the night sky can be. It's too bad that not everyone can see the night sky without the interference of city lights. I guess I'm fortunate that I've been healthy enough and motivated enough to go backpacking throughout the years to places where the night sky can be viewed in it's real glory.

I have a feeling what Rigel means to me, the Big Dipper will mean to you and suspect that humans have been doing the same thing as we have since time immemorial.