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My uncle died of AIDS complications back in '89. I was eight years old at the time, and no one really told me why he died (he was gay and the family danced around a lot of issues regarding his life and death, even to this day). We were very close and I was devastated. He had a very hard time letting go.
He died at the local VA Hospital, but for most of the latter stages of his illness he lived with us and we cared for him. When he died, he stayed around the house for a very long time. I saw him a lot, but what struck me was I always felt his presence around. Especially whenever I was sad or upset, he would always sit next to me. It's a difficult thing to explain without sounding completely batty, but I have always been a paranormally sensitive person.
I remember one Christmas when my cousins came up to visit from Maryland. My little, second cousin had just turned four, and on Christmas morning he turned to my mom when we were unwrapping gifts and asked, "who's that?" When my mom asked him what he meant, he said, "the tall man over there. He's smiling." My uncle was almost 7 feet tall, and my little cousin was just an infant when my uncle died and never saw any pictures. Children are very sensitive to paranormal activity, probably because they have not yet been conditioned to reject anything that isn't tangible on this plane.
Once he realized that my mom and I were alright (my mom was his sister), he eventually passed on. When he died we were in dire financial straits...my mom had just gotten divorced and my father was refusing to give us a dime, and my mom was working two jobs to put my sister through college and me through very expensive private school. We almost lost our house. I honestly believe my uncle was worried about leaving us.
Many similar things have happened to me over the years, especially surrounding death. I have had some scary premonitions that came to pass. Much of my spiritual work has to do with finding a framework to understand these things which are essentially impossible to understand. It's allowed me to be more at peace with the strange things I've experienced.
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