Mail for Mom

I was all set to go to bed when I remembered I hadn’t written tonight. Today’s photo prompt is “A Word.” I had no idea what to write until I saw the pile of mail Drew had tossed onto my desk this afternoon. There, in the pile was a catalog from Justice. I have only shopped there once, for my niece Gabi. Because of that, I occasionally I get mailings from them.

When I was in college, I had a credit card tied to my dad’s. That was more than 25 years ago. I obviously don’t have that account anymore. It was long before I ever lived in the house I am living in now, but once in awhile, I will still get something addressed to him even at this address. My mom and I never had accounts tied to one another, so I don’t quite know how this happened. I actually don’t want to really know. It was just nice to see in the pile so my words for today, are her name.

(I cropped out my address for obvious reasons…)

Indistinct

Cynics and non-believers of “signs” should just stop reading now because I don’t want to know the logical reason behind this. I love getting signs from my mom and they come so rarely that when they do, I just want to keep them as small reminders that she is thinking about me and watching over our family.

I usually keep my ipad on my bedside table but for some reason on Thursday night, I left it downstairs next to my computer.  When I came downstairs, Friday morning, I did my usual routine, breakfast, answering emails, Facebook….and the ipad just sat there idly.  I do all of that on my computer.  I didn’t even look at the ipad until right as I was walking out the door to go to work, and only then because it lit up with a message.

There are always alerts on it, Words With Friends, Facebook messages, texts, but one stood out.  It was from 8:05pm – while I was still downstairs but an alert didn’t come through then. It said I had a “Facetime Call” from Ellie Gianni.  My mom.

I tried swiping the screen to see where the call came from and the message was gone when I went to it.  I put my mom’s name into my contacts and her number came up as my parent’s home phone.  I still have her name in my contacts, but whenever my dad calls me, it comes up as “Mom and Dad.” Never as Ellie.  PLUS, it could not have been a Facetime call from her home phone.

I sent a message to all of my siblings and my dad to see if any of them had been playing around with my mom’s old phone.  My dad has kept it, but it is in a drawer and not charged.  None of them had.  I asked my dad what time he had called me the night before and he told me it was around 9pm.  Still FACETIME??? How did that came up and where did it go?  There is no record of it on my regular iphone either.

My brother told us that on that same night, he had a vivid dream about my mom.  We were all at a restaurant, an old favorite of her’s, and she was telling him something.  He doesn’t know what it was that she was trying to say.

Drew took a screen shot of it.  Just so I could save it.  Still don’t know what mom was trying to tell me, but today’s photo prompt is Indsitinct, which means, not easily seen, heard, or recognized : not distinct or clear. 

Well, this could not be any more indistinct – so even though it is not a great picture, I am using it because it is something I don’t want to forget.

A Birthday Message

 

On Tuesday, I blogged about a beautiful rainbow that appeared in the sky in the early evening. https://aprojectforkindness.wordpress.com/2013/06/11/rainbows-and-dreams/

I posted my photo on Facebook and the editor of our local Patch, http://maplewood.patch.com/articles/photo-of-the-day-rainbow-over-soma  asked if she could use it as their, “Photo of the Day”.  Of course I said yes.  Later that evening, the editor received this email and forwarded it to me.

“This rainbow holds some serious significance for a friend of mine who lost his wife, to cancer this weekend.  His daughter had her 8th birthday Tuesday and he gave her a bike.  When he took her outside to ride it, the rainbow was in the sky and they decided that was her mom’s birthday present. He was telling the story repeatedly at the wake last night and I’m sure that helped him get through the grueling process of greeting so many mourners.  Long story I know but we were wondering if we could get a copy of this photo to frame for the family”.

Of course, I wrote back that I would happily share the photo with him.  In my email to him, I had asked him if he had read my blog, because the kids and I had just talked about the rainbow being a “message” from my mom.  He had not read it, so I shared it with him and he wrote back to me,

“Claire I just read your blog and now I’m convinced more than before that the rainbow was truly sent from Heaven! I’m praying for you and your husband and am confident things will work out best of luck!”

Something so simple, that beautiful rainbow, which inspired me to write, got the attention of someone else who saw it and felt something significant too.  I can only hope that every time that little girl sees that photo, she will be able to think back to her birthday, and remember that gift from her mom.  I don’t even know her, but knowing how sad I am after losing my mom, I can not imagine the grief that she is experiencing as a child.

I wish that family peace and comfort and hope that they know that they have been in my thoughts for the last few days and I am so glad that this stranger reached out to me because it really has helped me to believe that our loved ones are really up there, watching out for us and sending us messages of love.