Losing a Loved One

Today I came across this touching story, please take a minute to read it:

After 21 years of marriage, my wife wanted me to take another woman out to dinner and a movie. She said, “I love you, but I know this other woman loves you and would love to spend some time with you.”

That night I called to invite her to go out for dinner and a movie. “What’s wrong, are you well?” she asked.

My mother is the type of woman who suspects that a late night call or a surprise invitation is a sign of bad news. “I thought that it would be pleasant to spend some time with you,” I responded. “Just the two of us.” She thought about it for a moment, and then said, “I would like that very much.”

That Friday after work, as I drove over to pick her up I was a bit nervous. When I arrived at her house, I noticed that she, too, seemed to be nervous about our date. She waited in the door with her coat on. She had curled her hair and was wearing the dress that she had worn to celebrate her last wedding anniversary. She smiled from a face that was as radiant as an angel’s. “I told my friends that I was going to go out with my son, and they were impressed, “she said, as she got into the car. “They can’t wait to hear about our meeting.”

We went to a restaurant that, although not elegant, was very nice and cozy. My mother took my arm as if she were the First Lady. After we sat down, I had to read the menu. Her eyes could only read large print. Half way through the entries, I lifted my eyes and saw Mom sitting there staring at me. A nostalgic smile was on her lips. “It was I who used to have to read the menu when you were small,” she said. “Then it’s time that you relax and let me return the favor,” I responded. During the dinner, we had an agreeable conversation – nothing extraordinary but catching up on recent events of each other’s life. We talked so much that we missed the movie. As we arrived at her house later, she said, “I’ll go out with you again, but only if you let me invite you.” I agreed.

“How was your dinner date?” asked my wife when I got home. “Very nice. Much more so than I could have imagined,” I answered.

A few days later, my mother died of a massive heart attack. It happened so suddenly that I didn’t have a chance to do anything for her. Some time later, I received an envelope with a copy of a restaurant receipt from the same place mother and I had dined. An attached note said: “I paid this bill in advance. I wasn’t sure that I could be there; but nevertheless, I paid for two plates – one for you and the other for your wife. You will never know what that night meant for me. I love you, son.”

At that moment, I understood the importance of saying in time: “I LOVE YOU” and to give our loved ones the time that they deserve. Nothing in life is more important than your family. Give them the time they deserve, because these things cannot be put off till “some other time.”

I hope this story has touched you just as much as it touched me. I actually had tears running. What if one of your loved ones just died suddenly: would that someone know how much you cared for him/her? How was your last time spent together? Can you remember what you talked about, what you laughed about? Did you share your dreams or fears, let the other one see the real you?

I admit my biggest fear always used to be to lose someone I deeply love and care for. Death really frightened me and the idea that there might not be anything after death even more so. How can there just be and end to a life I always wondered. How can one just seize to exist, just like that?

Many years later I found out that there is no end. I suddenly developed the ability to see past lives. My own and those of my family and clients through the energy therapies that I do. I also did past life regression under Hypnosis many times and was astonished and amazed by the beauty of what happens once we die. It all makes perfect sense. There never is an end to anything. We don’t really die. Part of us will always live and all those people we so deeply care about: we will see them again.

This knowledge, however, doesn’t mean that I don’t care about the time I spend with my loved ones now. This story reminded me so much of my grandma. She had been very sick for months. The fact that she lived in Brazil and we live in Europe meant we couldn’t really see her very often.

But one day she just booked a ticket to come and see us. She was very weak and needed to sit in a wheelchair. She flew all the way from South Brazil to the UK on her own to spend some time with her daughter and her 3 granddaughters. We spent an amazing week together, played cards as usual, had great brazilian dinners, laughed a lot and she would even get out of bed to make sure me and my sisters would stop fighting, because when the 3 of us get together the whole house becomes a mad house! She flew back and a few months later she was dead!

I’m so grateful to her and to God or whoever gave her the strength to make that journey by herself. It meant a lot to me to see her again and to spend some real quality time together.

She still is around now by the way, just differently...:-)