The Visitations

Those of us who have lost a loved one often talk about visitation dreams but what about what seem to be real visitations by the dearly departed?  Since Tiffany died, I have experienced two of these types of occurrences. 

The first time this happened, it was about 6:00 am on a Friday morning in August 2013.  I was in a deep sleep, dreaming some now-lost dream. Suddenly, I heard footsteps approaching my bed and I remembering thinking in my dream how odd that was.  It was odd because on some level I knew that the door was closed. How could there be footsteps in the room when I never heard the door open?  What was also strange was that I seemed to be on two different planes.  On the one hand, I was dreaming and knew I was dreaming.  But at the same time, I realized that there was something happening outside of the dream state, in the real world.

As I lay there, on my side, listening to the footsteps approach the bed and stop just short of my shoulder, I heard a voice, Tiffany's sweet voice, say gently "Mom...Mom?" It was so real that I woke right up out of the dream, sat up and looked at the door (which was still closed). Of course, no one was there but her voice resonated in my mind. I calmly, without fear, settled back down and fell asleep, hoping maybe she would come back to me in my dreams but she didn't.

Paul was in the other room getting ready for work and when I told him about it, he told me that he had heard footsteps as well.  But he just thought that I had gotten up but I hadn't left the bed.  It is this that makes me think that what I heard was real and not just a dream.

I never did figure out if she had a message for me but at the time I hadn't been feeling great, either mentally or physically.  After the visit, I felt a little bit better.  Maybe that was her purpose, if there was one.  Whatever the reason, I am so grateful for that little visit out of time...it soothed my soul.

The next time it happened was just a month ago.  It was Memorial Day and we were on vacation in Massachusetts.  I forget what time it was but it wasn't too early or too late in the morning.  I woke up, opened my eyes and heard a voice say "Mom".  I looked at Paul, who was standing in the room, told him that someone had called to me and closed my eyes.  As I rested there on the bed, I felt a soft touch on my hip as if someone had laid their hand gently on me.

This experience was so reminiscent of the first occasion that I really have begun to wonder if perhaps there is something that Tiffany is trying to communicate.  I wish I knew what it was, if anything.  Or maybe she's just letting me know she's with me and she's okay.

Waking dreams, lucid dreams, visitation dreams...whatever kind they are, can be fascinating, especially when someone close and most dear to you has died.  It was less than a week after I had this visitation that I attended a meeting where the guest speaker spoke at length about Dreams and the Departed.  And just last September, I went to an all-day workshop, given by the same guest speaker, on Meeting the Departed in Dreams.  It was shortly after that workshop that I had the most vivid (and probably the first significant) dream of Tiffany.  If you want to know more about this type of dream, please visit "Visitation Dreams: Dreaming of Someone You Know Who Has Died".

As the 4th anniversary of her death approaches, I pray for more dreams to come of Tiffany, my sweet "Princess".

“No matter how your heart is grieving, if you keep on believing, the dreams that you wish will come true.” 
― Walt Disney Company (from Cinderella)