Are your dead loved ones speaking to you? How to interpret signs & symbols from friends & family who have passed.
My Grandma Mable passed away on January 1, 2015 at the age of 99. It was rather suddenly, but at 99, is there such a thing? Three weeks earlier we were all up in Syracuse, New York celebrating her birthday. It was the last time I saw her before she passed. I got the news a day or two before she passed that she had fallen and was in the hospital. At the time, it was not clear if it was life threatening.
Me & Grandma Mable at her 99th Birthday on December 6th, 2014 (3 weeks before she passed)
On New Year’s Eve my husband and I were watching TV and at around 12:30am on January 1st, an ornament suddenly fell off our Christmas Tree, unprovoked. I don’t know why, but I said out loud, “Oh Shit, Grandma is going to die.” I don’t know why, but I just had a sense. The random bang of the ornament sent a feeling into me that she was leaving. I didn’t look to see what ornament it was.
I went to bed and had a dream. I had a dream she was dying and that I was trying to get to her before she left, because all I wanted to tell her was to come visit me after she died. I personally believe that loved ones who have passed still come visit us or send us messages through signs and symbols. All I wanted to tell her was to visit me and send me signs of her presence. In the dream I felt so desperate, like I was racing against time to get to her and I had to just tell her that one thing. I can’t remember exactly what happened in the dream, but I got there in time and I was talking to a younger version of her, what she looked like when I was a small child. I said, “You have to come back and visit me after you die and let me know you are with me.” In the dream she said to me, “I am already here”. It was vivid and it felt real.
Mable Marshall at age 50.
I woke up and got word from my dad that my Grandma had passed in the early hours of New Year’s Day. Was my dream even a dream? My first reaction was a feeling of peace and happiness for her – she came to me in the dream and said she’s already with me. I then remembered that an ornament fell off the tree the night before and I had had an intuitive feeling that she was leaving us. I didn’t know which ornament it was, so I searched the floor behind the tree. It was a simple and beautiful white dove, and that’s when I realized, she is okay and happy. That was my first sign and symbol from my Grandma that she was with me and it made perfect sense. I used to volunteer with this lady Julia, who had white doves. She would sometimes bring them and I took pictures and showed them to Grandma. She loved the doves and she was so fascinated by them. Every now and then she would ask me about Julia and the doves.
Julia's dove. She used to bring her to Jefferson Market Garden, where I volunteered as a greeter.
I was struck by the experience of the ornament falling and the dream I had that seemed very real and also seemed to have happened during the exact time when my Grandma was dying. Is this how my dead Grandma is communicating with me? Is this real or am I making it up? I started researching as much as I could about loved ones who have passed but still communicate with us. The main thing I want to impart from my research is that if you think something is a sign or symbol from a loved one who has passed, do NOT doubt it. Everything has meaning and you’re not just making it up for comfort. If you see something and get a sense that mom is near, trust it. Also, if you feel like you're not getting any signs or symbols and that they are not with you, start looking deeper.
The consensus is this: People who have passed often send us symbols or show up in our dreams to let us know they are okay. They don’t want us to be sad for their passing, but they want us to continue speaking to them. Also, this was something interesting I learned: You have to speak out loud to them or write them letters. They can hear your voice and they can read your writing, but they can’t read your mind. So, if you want to communicate with your dead relative or friend, talk to them out loud.
I found great comfort in Marianne Williamson’s book, A Return to Love. She says, “We think that the death of a body is the death of a person. It is not. The spirit does not die when the body dies. Physical death is like taking off a suit of clothes.” Death does not need to be perceived as the end of a relationship, Williamson says. It is a beginning of a different one. People like Gabby Bernstein, Doreen Virtue and Dr. Wayne Dyer have said much about this subject too.
Basically when someone dies, we must speak to them differently than we did before. We can look for signs and symbols and things that remind us of them to continue the relationship. We can pay attention and wait for them to come to us or speak to us in a different way. We just need to pay extra attention and look for clues that they are near. Also, if you aren't seeing many signs or symbols, speak to them out loud and ask for more signs or symbols. Tell them that you want to see/feel their loving presence.
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We all went up to Syracuse for the wake and funeral. On the way to the wake I was driving with my mom and sister and right in front of us in the sky was this huge cloud and it looked like a wishbone. I don’t know why, but I pointed it out to them. I was like, “Look, that cloud is a wish bone.” I didn’t think much of it beyond that, but I remember the cloud getting my attention. In the two years since my grandma has passed, I see wishbone shaped clouds all the time and I get this sense that Grandma Mable is near. Or I see shapes that look like the Y shaped wishbones on the street. I researched the spiritual significance of wishbones and it’s basically about hope and luck and also, the wishbone is strong and central to a bird’s skeletal structure; it’s what keeps birds balanced in flight. I started telling my mom about these wishbone clouds. One day she called me up and said, “I was driving today and it was the most beautiful day and I looked up and there was a huge wishbone cloud in the sky. Mable was with me.” I had also seen one that very morning. My mom has started seeing wishbone clouds too.
I saw this wishbone cloud on December 15th, 2016 while driving along the East River in New York.
Recently, I was in New York, taking an Uber uptown and I looked out the window and there it was, a huge wishbone cloud – it was peaceful and serene and striking and I said, “Hi Grandma, I love you.” There she is, a wishbone cloud.
I've been thinking a lot lately about signs and symbols from the dearly departed. I noticed on Facebook so many friends have lost loved ones over the past year. I decided to share my story of signs and symbols that I get from my Grandma, in hopes that others will identify. It helps me to write out my experiences, to relive them or make sense of them. Because sometimes I think I'm making all of this up, as if I'm forcing a spiritual experience to give myself comfort when I miss my Grandma. But the experts would say, don't doubt a sign or a symbol as being real. I'm a believer. Maybe my experiences of the signs and symbols I have received from my Grandma will help someone else who is struggling from the death of a friend or relative. Seeing these signs brings comfort.
What's your experience with this? Please share your stories of signs and symbols you get from loved ones who have passed. I think it will bring more hope to people who are missing their loved ones who are no longer with us physically!