On almost a daily basis, I hear from people who share with me experiences God allows them to have following the loss of a loved one.
They can come in a surprise bouquet of flowers, from someone who never knew red roses were their favorite. A dream through which a more enlightened understanding comes to pass. Letters found, which unravel a family secret from long ago, now bringing great peace. In this story from her book Thin Places: Where Faith Is Affirmed and Hope Dwells, Mary Treacy O’Keefe celebrates her beloved parents and receives the reassurance that they are together in heaven for eternity.
“Comforted by a Birthday Card”
When Mom died three months after my father’s death, our family was devastated. Dad had died just six weeks after a lung cancer diagnosis, and mom of an infection. Yet we were comforted by a “thin place” sign that reminded us that the veil between this world and the next is very “thin.”
Two days after Mom’s death, on May 3, my brother was sorting family photos for her wake. He found an envelope addressed in Mom’s handwriting to Dad. She had stayed in Arizona to sell our home before joining Dad, who’d been transferred to St. Paul. The postmark was May 3, 1959, forty-three years ago to the day.
In the envelope was a birthday card. On the cover was a ’50s housewife sitting on a cigar-toting man’s lap. It read, “Happy Birthday, Mr. Wonderful,” and opened to reveal the words, “With love from Mrs. Lucky.” Beneath those words, Mom had written: Happy Birthday, sweetheart! I hope this is the last of your birthdays that we will ever spend apart. All my love, Terry.
Mom’s wake was May 5, what would have been our father’s 75th birthday. For the rest of their marriage, our parents never did spend another of his birthdays apart. Finding this card reassured us that they are together in heaven, never again to be separated.
