Grandparents touch our lives in so many ways, sharing their wisdom, teaching us how to carry on family traditions, and loving us unconditionally. Here are 7 incredible stories of comforting signs from beyond, showing the children and grandchildren left behind that the power of a grandparent’s love endures—to heaven and back.
A Heavenly Alarm
Margaret Ames didn’t want to open her eyes that morning, let alone get out of bed. It wasn’t just the winter cold. It was… everything. Her breast cancer had returned. Her two twenty-something children had moved back home, and every day brought another argument over who was going to do what around the house.
She opened her eyes a crack. Her gaze fell on the basket across the bedroom, piled with her late grandmother’s embroidery. Grandma Sadie—now there was someone who could do it all. She’d once said, “Start each day with a happy heart.” Oh, Grandma, I wish I could, Margaret thought.
Learn how Margaret’s grandma gave her just the morning start she needed.
The Storm
It was a late-summer night in Wisconsin, 1993, when a storm rolled over Debra A. Hoskins’ family farm. This farmhouse had been where her grandpa lived his whole life. Her family had moved in five months ago, after he’d passed away.
BOOOOOM! Thunder rattled the windows. Debra opened one eye and searched the dark for the clock. 4:30 a.m. Too early to be awake. Then, a firm, male voice—not unlike her grandpa’s—spoke in her mind…
Find out what this mysterious voice had to say to Debra.
A Promise
After Dana Swanson moved away from home, she started having nightmares about her grandparents passing away. Watching them grow old and frail had forced her to ask herself some tough questions. What would she do without the man who showed her the value of hard work? Or the woman who gave her strength in the face of fear?
“Dana, sweetheart, I love you,” her Grandma Marjorie said one day. “But it doesn’t help either of us for you to worry. Now my time will come, as it does for everybody. And when it does, just know that I’ll never really leave you.”
Learn how Grandma Marjorie kept her promise in a surprising way.
A Gift from Grandma C
When Kathy Simonar’s sister announced her engagement, their mom was over the moon. For her, that meant a shopping spree at Goodwill to collect supplies for making wedding decorations. They visited Goodwill multiple times over the next weeks, their mom collecting multiple odds and ends for her project. Then when her mom put a doll in the shopping cart, Kathy didn’t see where the doll fit into her plans.
“What are you going to do with her?” Kathy asked on the drive home.
“You’ll see,” she said.
See how Kathy’s mom’s doll ended up being a divine gift.
Grandpa Jacques
Hilary Ribons’ grandpa Jacques was always intriguing to her growing up. He wore heavy cologne, had a thick European accent and a deep, booming voice. He also had a rose tattoo on his arm, drawn with thick lines. Hilary later discovered that it covered something more sinister. A series of numbers.
Hilary’s grandpa was a Holocaust survivor, and without his determination and fierce will to live, she knew she wouldn’t be here. Sometimes, when life gets hard, she thinks of her grandpa. Still, she couldn’t help but wonder: Was he truly at peace?
Learn how Hilary’s unlikely find brought her grandpa close to her again.
The Painting
After her grandmother passed away, Kelly Gallagher and her family gathered at her grandmother’s house to divide up her things. She drifted from room to room feeling more and more unhappy. Each item claimed by someone else felt like a memory being stolen from her. Quietly she set aside a few things, but mostly she just stood by as things were claimed by her more assertive relatives.
Suddenly she pointed to the landscape painting over her grandmother’s bed. “I’ll take that,” she said, but she had no idea why. Maybe she was so upset at everything she’d lost that she was ready to grab at anything. But why this painting?
See how Kelly’s grandmother’s painting was more significant than she realized.
Ivy Dishes
While searching for her first home with her husband, Sandy Clay thought about how she’d decorate it. She’d collected little knickknacks over the years, waiting until she had the space to display them. Including the pretty set of plates she’d been storing away since the summer after her freshman year of college. They were cream and ringed with ivy.
From the moment Sandy spotted them at an estate sale, nestled among the hats, linens and old furniture, they seemed to beckon her. She just knew she had to have them. Why, she wasn’t sure—they were out of her budget, and what did a college student need with a full set of ceramic dishes anyway? She wouldn’t find out until years later…
