by Roberta Simpson Brown

When Kim joined our faculty at Southern Middle School in Louisville in the early nineties, I never saw a healthier young woman. She was a young wife and mother of one daughter, Sarah, with responsibilities at home, but she never ran out of energy at school. We all loved her as a friend and teacher.

We both got to school early, so we would meet in my room for coffee and bagels while we talked about what our team of teachers would be doing for the day. She adored her daughter and always had some “Sarah Story” to share. So I was especially shocked one February morning when she had something different to tell me.

“I don’t want you to be concerned, but I have to be out of school for a few days,” she said. “I have been really tired lately, and now something is sticking in my throat. It’s probably nothing, but the doctor wants me to go into the hospital so he can check it out.”

She was wrong. It was something none of us could have imagined. Tests showed a malignant tumor wrapped around her heart and extending into her throat. The few days of absences turned into months as she went through surgery and chemo. I send her cards and letters every day through the mail so she could keep up with what was happening with our team. I did not use E-mail back then.

Kim returned to teaching when school opened in the fall, but she had to take radiation treatments. I used to beg her to stay home, but she’d say, “I don’t want to do that. I want my life to be as normal as possible. I want to teach.” She had to struggle to make it through each day. She didn’t worry about dying. She just couldn’t bear leaving her little daughter.

“I don’t want her to remember me as a sick mother,” she said over and over.

Then the treatments ended and she waited for the results of the tests to see if the cancer was gone. She told her husband to come to school and give her the news, regardless of whether it was good or bad. As we took our students to lunch that day, I saw him standing at the bottom of the stairs. One look at his face told me what I didn’t want to hear. I quickly took our students to the cafeteria while Kim and her husband went to the main office. I hurried to the office just as they were leaving. I barely had time to hug her and say goodbye. It was the last time I saw her alive.

Now that she was out of school again, I wrote her again every day. Then in December, I got a call from her. She was going into the hospital and the doctor told her to get her affairs in order. She had called to say a last goodbye. I don’t know how we got through that conversation without breaking down, but we did. We spoke of what we had meant to each other and that we would be friends forever. We both said, “I love you” and then hung up.

The last day of school before Christmas break in 1996 arrived. Kim was in the hospital, in and out of consciousness. That morning, I stood by my classroom door on hall duty, looking across the hall toward her old classroom. Students hurried down the hall to their lockers before homeroom started. Suddenly, I couldn’t believe my eyes. Kim was standing outside her classroom door, looking radiant and watching the students go by. I knew then that she had died during the night. I inched my way to the teacher standing at the next door and said, “Kim’s here. I’m sure she died last night, but she’s come to say goodbye.” She looked where I pointed, but more students passed as we got a last glimpse, and then Kim was gone. A call from the office confirmed her death, and we all settled down in class to grieve and write our thoughts in our journals. The silence was broken by a knock at my classroom door. The students looked up as I opened the door. An office aide was standing there with a large Christmas gift for me. I learned later that Kim had shopped before she went into the hospital and, not knowing that would be the day of her death, had asked that the gift be delivered the day before our Christmas break.

“Open it!” the students urged.

They all watched as I took out a green, hand painted wooden Christmas tree. It had red candle holders attached and candles in a little tin box that had on it the words, “Friends Forever.”

“It’s just like she’s here,” they said. I agreed as I put up the tree in our classroom.

Until I retired at the end of 1999, I put up the tree every year so students could come by and share memories. To this day, I have the little tin box on my desk at home. One of the teachers suggested we collect happy stories about Kim for her daughter Sarah so she would not remember her mom as just being sick. We had the stories bound in a booklet that Sarah could keep.

I didn’t go back to school for quite some time after I retired. When I did go back, I had a very eerie experience. As I walked through the door, I was transported back in time. It was 1996 again, and all of us, including Kim, were there together. The classrooms were the same and the voices I heard were those of our students from our past days together. I felt like several dimensions existed sided by side. I wanted to turn back time and relive the good times. Suddenly some students from the present came around the corner, and time shifted back. I stood there for a moment letting it all sink in. I knew life was eternal. Kim and all the others I had loved in my life who had crossed over were very near, and they always will be until I join them someday.

Death is not an end, but a beginning. Life is forever.

For me summertime is all about vacations. Growing up, my family always took a two-week vacation to different destination in the US. It was always fun, and I cherish those memories. Now that I have my own family, I have carried on the tradition of those wonderful summer vacations.

One of my favorite things to do on vacation (besides being at the water) is to pick places that may have a haunted history.I love to research the place beforehand or better yet pick up a local ghosts story book while there.It is the best pat of the trip! I’d like to share with you a few of my favorite haunted spots.

Moundsville State Penitentiary
My husband and I are huge fans of the reality ghost and paranormal shows.One particular show featured a penitentiary right in our own state. It is a few hours drive, but the show intrigued us so much that my husband, older son, and I set out to take the daytime tour. We were not disappointed!

The prison is the Moundsville State Penitentiary in Moundsville, West Virginia. It was an active prison from about 1876 until 1995. This included carrying out death penalties until 1959 by hanging and later by an electric chair. The prison was ultimately closed because the Supreme Court ruled that the 5’ x 7’ cells were cruel and unusual punishment. The inmates were transferred to another correctional facility in West Virginia called Mount Olive. Besides the day and night tours, the abandoned prison is also used for riot and police training.

My brother worked for our local jail for a time in the late 1980’s and often transferred prisoners to the Moundsville facility. He would hear people that worked at the prison full time talk of unusual happenings, but he never ventured in to the prison further than the inmate drop-off.

When we pulled up to the prison for our tour, it was as if we were thrown back in time. The building had a gothic look. It had a sinister and ominous feel even before getting out of the car, and immediately gave me a chill. It almost reminded me of a medieval castle with the dark clouds hanging over it. It was definitely out of place in this small town of Moundsville, West Virginia.

Moundsville is said to have gotten its name, in part, from a large American Indian burial mound. Legend had it that some of the hauntings are a result of the prison and surrounding buildings being built on the actual burial ground.

As we entered the building I was armed with my pen, notebook and with my camera hoping to catch a picture or two of a ghost.
You could feel the coldness as you entered the lobby, and this continued throughout. Our tour guide that day had worked as a correctional office when the prison was still functional. He had many personal stories that he shared that made the tour well worth the time. He had also been there when the reality series filmed their show on the haunted side of Moundsville so he was able to take us to all of the nooks and crannies and show us the paranormal areas, the areas that we had come to see.

One of the first stops as we entered the long, cold corridors was the cafeteria. While it was as dreary as the hallway we had just left, there were many paintings on the wall. The guide told us the prisoners were allowed to decorate and paint as a reward for good behavior. He went on to say that for whatever reason; this was one of the most active spaces paranormally. I took out my camera and snapped three pictures on in three different areas of the cafeteria walls. All three of those pictures contain orbs, shadows, and areas of white light when I had them developed! The air felt heavy in there and though the prison was hot this time of year the room had many cold spots.

Next we were walked to some of the cells. They were four stories high with what looked like a chain-linked fence all around us. The cells were small, and had a very distressing feel to them. The cellblock that he took us to was called the North Hall also known as “The Alamo”. It housed some very violent men we were told. From there we were taken to where death row. It once housed some of the countries most vicious criminals. It really does take your breath away to be confined to such eerie quarters. The picture I snapped down the death row corridor shows at least four orbs in them. This was a sad and desperate part of the prison.

He said the inmates on death row would often throw food, vomit, and urine on the guards as they walked past the cells. The guide said that new guards learned early that you served dinner from the back to the front otherwise the guard would be wearing whatever was for dinner that night. He showed us the small cafeteria at death row that looked like an animal cage. There was a chain like fence all around it including the top.

The tour guide then led us outside to the courtyard where the inmates had been allowed their exercise time. There were fences and a slab of concrete that once housed a boxing ring. We were shown the door to the infamous “Hole”. This place is also said to have much paranormal activity. This is probably due to the fact that so many were said to have gone insane during their punishment there. Some very cruel punishments were said to have been carried out down there. It is the basement of the prison, and while you are now allowed to go down there, at the time of our tour we were not allowed. We could only look through the door as the guide told us that was the most famous place that the reality series had sent people to investigate. The guide said that even he would not be brave enough to venture there, at night, by himself. My pictures of the door, however, show no anomalies.

He led us to what he called the North Wagon Gate. It’s an old building with a trap door at the top. This is where the hangings took place when the death penalty was still enforced in West Virginia. He pulled a lever that let a dummy drop from the top hanging from a noose as he retold the story of the last hanging. The inmate’s head fell off into the crowd as he was dropped. Because a man had been decapitated in front of the crowd, they had the electric chair built. The electric chair was used after that for all executions until the death penalty was abolished in this state in 1959.

We were told about “Sugar Shack”. It is a haunted part of the basement. It served as a recreational room as well as makeshift cells. Many, many prisoners and at least one correctional officer lost their lives in the “Sugar Shack”. He did not take us down there, but said that many people in the past of reported strange happenings there including hearing footsteps and seeing shadows. It is now apart of their ghost tour.

We entered the administrative building where the warden lived with his family early in the prisons history. There was housed a large caged wheel. It separated the warden and his family from the inmates for their protection. This wheel allowed guards to operate it remotely so the prisoners only had a single entrance when spun. This prevented the men from escaping. The guide told us that people have reported this area to be haunted as well. They report that the cage will swing around on its own.

As we left the prison we were led through to a museum at the end of the tour. In this museum there were homemade weapons from prisoners of long ago, and a hand-written letter from Charles Manson asking to be transferred to Moundsville so that he could be close to his family. Charles Manson was probably one of the most famous people ever to have spent time in the Moundsville penitentiary, and he stated in the letter that he would like to come back to serve the rest of his life sentence. It was denied.

The highlight of the museum was “Old Sparky” the electric chair. It was built by an inmate and fully functional in its time. As I snapped a picture of “Old Sparky” another anomaly, a small orb, showed up in my picture just above the chair. The chair is made of wood with leather straps, and has a very sad feeling about it.
It is a great tour, and I highly recommend you stop by if you are ever in the area of Moundsville, West Virginia. If you choose the nighttime ghost tour, it is not for the faint of heart. Their web address is: tours@wvpentours.com and they say that ghost tours are limited.

USS North Carolina
One year while vacationing in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina we stopped in Wilmington, North Carolina on the way home to visit the ship, USS North Carolina. The USS North Carolina was a World War II era ship, and massive for someone like me who had never entered a battleship before. My dad was a Navy man in the 1950’s and this would be his favorite part of the trip. We bought our tickets and boarded as a family, but were soon separated. The more I walked through the ship, the more in awe I was.

I wondered around and would pass other tourists along the way. I was reading the plaques, and trying to picture how difficult it must have been to work in such close quarters while rolling along at sea. Not long into the self-guided tour, I found myself in the infirmary. All of a sudden the temperature felt like it dropped more than ten or so degrees. I was shivering in the middle of summer, and at the same time breaking into a cold sweat! I felt a presence, and at the time I was all by myself. It almost made me feel ill as if I was experiencing someone’s fate while in the infirmary. After I came out of the ship, I waited for my family on the deck, and told them of my experience. Another guest on the ship overheard and said that I must be very sensitive, because it sounded like I experienced one of the ghosts that is said to haunt the ship.

After returning home from vacation, I read more on the history of the USS North Carolina. It seems that ten men perished on that ship, and the caretakers at the time felt like at least two of the men still haunted the ship. There have been reports of doors opening and closing and reports of cold spots just like the one that I experienced.

Harpers Ferry, WV
I would be remiss if I did not include Harpers Ferry. This was home to my grandmother and many other family members and right in my own backyard (so to speak). The West Virginia Park Services owns much of Harpers Ferry now including my grandmother’s first house. Her first house also stood along the road where there were many Civil War events, and sadly many Civil War deaths. In Harpers Ferry, John Brown is said to still be seen on the streets by busy tourists and will often tip his hat to say hello before disappearing.

Saint Peter’s Catholic Church sits near Jefferson’s Rock and is said to still have a priest that long ago passed still present today as well as a Civil War soldier. It’s a beautiful stone church with stunning stained glass windows. It’s still operational today.

“Screaming Jenny” is probably one of my favorite stories. Supposedly a girl got too close to the flames of a fire in her old shack and ran screaming down the nearby railroad tracks. Many engineers have reported seeing Jenny. To this day people look and listen for Jenny when visiting the railroad station.
Harpers Ferry has a really fun ghost tour. My grandmother experienced much of what the tour has to offer, and I always enjoy hearing the stories again. Close by is Antietam, MD where one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War is said to have taken place as is Gettysburg, PA another Civil War battlefield.If you’re in the area, it is not only full of history, but also full of paranormal activity!

Some of my other favorite vacation spots where spirits are plentiful were: Salem, MA, Bar Harbor, ME, and the haunted heartland of Kansas and Missouri.

Next time you plan your trip, make time to experience the local haunts. I’m sure you won’t be disappointed that you did!

Have you ever wondered what it is like for a child who can see and hear spirits? Many children have this ability. Actually many of us were more sensitive to the spirit world when we were young. It is usually adults that are non-accepting or not tuned-in enough to listen. Many of us are curious about what it’s like to be a child medium so I thought I would interview one.

I have the privilege of knowing a very young but very gifted child medium. I wanted to share with you her plain and simple knowledge of the other side. I asked her the following questions:

What is the best part about being able to hear and see spirits?
It is so cool how they show up and then they are gone in a snap. I know it takes a lot of energy for them to show up. I have to look quickly and try to remember everything that I see.

What do they look like?
They mostly show themselves in black and white. The figures are mostly black and sometimes look like shadow people. Other times they show me what they want me to see. I can tell if they are tall or short, male or female. I can tell what type of clothing they have on. Sometimes I see in color but not often. They often only show their face. I can tell how they wear their hair and the shape of their face.

Do you ever feel them?
I feel a light touch like as light as a feather. I can feel their presence if they are beside me or behind me. I rather see them than feel them.

Do they send you other things?
They send signs to me to remind me that they are there. I always have a lot of orbs in our family pictures. My grandma sends butterflies. There is many ways they send signs like with birds, coins, light flickering, or any little thing that reminds you of them. They don’t ever want people to act like they aren’t there.

Can you asked them questions?
Yes. I can just listen or ask them questions or both.

Do you think everybody can do what you can do?
No, not everybody can see and hear spirits. You have to have a gift from God. You should do good with it if you have the gift. I like to help people. It makes me feel good when I can give someone a message from someone who has passed.

When is the easiest time to hear them?
When it is quiet is the best time to hear them. Sometimes you hear and see them even when you don’t want to. Spirits can’t hurt you. You can just walk away or just stand there.

Do you know who you are seeing?
Some spirits come and you don’t know who they are. I try to figure out who they are but sometimes I can’t. They just want to be somewhere so they hang around people that can see them and hear them. I have someone that helps me try to figure out who they are.

How do you hear them?
I hear them like a small whisper in my ear of a word or two but mostly they send thoughts.

What else have you learned about the spirit world?
They love their light and their happiness. The spirit world is good. They don’t just disappear. Their body dies but their spirit stays with us. They like it when you talk to them. It gives them something to listen to. They help us. They warn us about what’s happening in the future. We should listen to them. It is like listening to your conscience. It is like when you hear a thought. They want you to listen to them. They want you to know that they are there. That is why they send us signs. They want us to know they are happy and at peace.

I really like being able to hear and see spirits. Sometimes it is scary but I really like being able to help people. I love it when my grandma who has passed visits me. I know she is always there and she protects me.

“See ya soon, I’ll call you next week, we really need to get together soon.” How often have we all said these words only to realize that weeks, months, and even years pass before we fulfill them. We are all so busy these days that it seems like personal relationships are always on the back burner or off the stove all together. We are all wrapped up in our jobs; most of us work full-time jobs and then some, families; besides working full-time we have families with young children or older children who still need our attention and support, and some of us are raising grandchildren as well for a “second generation” family.

We have chores to do, meetings to attend, lessons and sporting events to attend, and so many other obligations that seem to take up all of our time. Unfortunately, we place the friendships and at times our family members on the list of things to do when the time allows, and then never find the time allowed. How many times have you said “Oh, I really need to call my Mom, Dad, sister, brother”, only to have the thought escape us before it has had the time to make a difference?

I was listening to a song recently and heard the words –will there come a day, you and I can say we can finally see each other, will there come a time, we can find the time to reach out for each other?

I have a friend from high school and we try to go out to dinner together on each other’s birthday. My birthday was in February and we still haven’t had our dinner. One night I had to cancel in order to stay home with my grandson and another time she had to cancel to attend an after work meeting. We still bring it up now and then but just don’t seem to be able to find a suitable time we both have a free evening. We did get a good laugh when we realized her birthday is in September, and last year we did go out in December to celebrate her birthday. This proved to be about as good as it has been the past several years as far as having dinner together close to our actual birthday dates.

I read an article in the paper a few days ago that shared a new insight to this subject. The wife was stating that she and her husband rarely get out to visit relatives, but that he is the first one to jump on a plane and go to a relative’s funeral when one occurs. The wife asked if it wouldn’t be better to jump on that plane before a funeral comes along. The person answering these questions said very emphatically yes!

Don’t wait for the funeral, go see the person while they can still give you a hug and take the time to chat and have a good time. I was going to take this great advice and call my friend, my Dad, and a niece, but the time just ran out; I had to run to the daycare, the traffic was terrible, and a business call came in while I was driving. The rest of the evening was taken up with a very active 5 year old and the calls were never made. By the time my grandson was in bed—finally—the dishes done, the kitchen floor swept, the laundry changed, dishes washed and put away, and the pets all fed and settled in for the night it was just too late to make those calls.

Hopefully this weekend these calls can be made—I just have to find the time!

Life is a beautiful thing given to us by our savior Jesus Christ. We as individuals make our own life what it is. Every living creature has a plan to complete while on this earth and we never know how long God’s plan for us may last.

As we travel along life’s highways we learn a lot. Sometime those highways are long and weary but we follow them where ever they may lead us. We must learn to take them one day at a time and make the very best of each given day.

Our parents worried about us and we all worry about our children and grandchildren as they grow up and find their own paths in life. They all learn by making mistakes along the way. Some seem to make a lot of mistakes before they learn and then there are others that everything seems to just fall in place without trial or tribulation. Some are just more focused than others. Life is full of challenges although sometime it is hard to look at our problems as a challenge because we get very frustrated and we seem to wonder why things are not going our way. We have many challenges in our lifetime and we have to take our time and work through them one step at a time.

Has your mind ever felt like it was just going in a whirlwind with everything just going round and round? Have you ever been very upset and thought that if you just had the time and could take a walk or perhaps go to a nice quiet peaceful place and think things out that perhaps you would feel better?

By all means, take that walk.

Taking a walk helps to relieve stress and helps to clear the mind as well. A walk in the fresh air with the breeze blowing through the hair, maybe through the park or the meadow or down by the creek or the ocean side with the sand sifting between your toes and the warmth of the sun flowing down upon you as you are taking nice slow breaths inhaling all the fresh oxygen into the lungs helping to release all the stress that is in your life at the time. The trickling water of a brook, the tranquility of being near the ocean makes the mind more perceptive. Water is a natural carrier and if you pay attention to your inner-self when near a body of water you will find it to be a very relaxing place. As you relax your mind and body you become more receptive to your own thoughts and things that are going on within you. With the good fresh oxygen that you are taking in you are not only helping your mind to be able to think things through more clearly but you are also helping your health. Find a nice place to sit down and let your troubles flow away as though they are flowing into the water and being washed away from you. Just sit there and inhale the good fresh oxygen, relax the mind and body till you feel that peace within.

We all have a little bit of psychic powers within us but most of us do not permit those powers to develop. Those powers cannot develop if we do not let ourselves develop them. When you hold tension within the body and think negative thoughts it keeps those powers from coming to life within us. Practice relaxation, think positive thoughts and remember that Rick always says: “Keep the Faith”.
Worldly goods and money should not be what is most important in our life. We want to leave a legacy or something to be remembered by even if it is simply being a good mother, father, grandmother, grandfather or aunt or uncle. Most of us want our families to remember us for something special that we meant to them before we complete our plan on this earth.

A 33-year old niece of mine recently had her life cut short due to cancer. She was very courageous and had a love for life that didn’t want to end. She knew her days were numbered when she simply asked her husband, “Why”. A very simply question but how do you answer a question like that? She fought a long hard battle but she left a wonderful bunch of memories for everyone that was ever involved with her. She was a beautiful person. We all miss her very much but she is no longer suffering and her life plan was completed but it was much shorter than the time that we wanted her to be with us.

I am asking you; what will you leave for your family to remember about you?

As for me; Along with my personal gains and various things I have done for others in my walks of life, I tell my family that I am going to live to be 105 and I do honestly hope that I can do that and have good health but if my life plan falls short of those years then I hope that I have brought my family and friends much love and happiness in my years on this earth.

For those of you that enjoy reading for relaxation by all means read the books that Rick has on his website as well as some of the books about Edgar Cayce, “The Sleeping Prophet” who was from Hopkinsville, KY which is a neighboring town where I live. You can find Edgar’s books at most public libraries or you can go online to www.edgarcayce.org and read about his life and also order the books.

As far back as I can remember I was always scared, sad, and lonely. I never knew how to express my feelings within me. I was a quiet person, always doing my best to stay out of the way of others. I simply tried to do the right thing. I didn’t know what it was, but I felt like that was what I needed to do.

Growing up the way I did, it is a miracle I’m still here. Someone or somebody had to be looking out for me and I now believe it was and is my guardian angel. As kids we do as we are told – whether it is right or wrong. As adults, we have choices. As a matter of making the right ones – boy did I make a lot of wrong ones!

I now know there were a lot of good things along my life, but I didn’t see them when it happened because I was to busy being miserable. Love was never a word in my life that I heard, nor did I know the true meaning until I had my children. I married at an early age and my first daughter passed away at the age of 6 months. There I went again, being sad, scared, and lonely. Once again I wanted to run away and hide.

I became the mother of four additional children. But II still could not find my purpose in life, and that inner peace I so desperately searched for. Years later I made a decision to become a massage therapist. I feel so very close to God when I’m in my massage room. I feel he is watching over me, guiding my hands. I feel safe, so happy, and often find my mind wondering back to a time, I was with my dad.

I remember dad driving the car attempting to find a road sign. To help, I found the number on a mailbox. My dad wasn’t to happy with me, but again I was just trying to help. I didn’t know it at the time, but that was my purpose in life, to help people.

Life can be hard, but there are times we make it a lot harder than it really is. I try to look forward, to keep a positive attitude. I have those times I feel sad, and still have a hard time expressing myself. But when I get up in the morning, I know I have my kids and my grandkids who love so much they give my life meaning.

The first time I saw Rick, he was easy to talk to. My mother had passed the year before and the things he shared with me made a lot of sense. She is there in my thoughts as I meditate and in my dreams. I miss her so very much.

I now know if you make changes in your life, believe in yourself your life will change as well. My true meaning of life is being me, to love who I am. Life is overflowing with the new, but necessary to empty out the old and to make room for the new to enter.

This story starts back in 2006. My husband , and I were married thirty-eight years. We had two children, a daughter, and a son. It was everything I always wanted. Included in this happy home were our three dogs and two cats. We inherited his parent’s two-story house, that originally included an apple orchard.

We rented out the second floor to Auntie Jan, until she got older in age and her kids wanted her to move. She was a wonderful lady, great cook, kind, and loving. She was more like a mother, then a grandma. Everyone loved her and she was my best friend. We often cooked for each other and she would join us for dinner. She would help my children with homework.

Just after New Year’s of 2006., my daughter’s cat , and my cat ‘s behavior changed. My daughter mentioned about our cat’s peculiar behavior. At the time I told her something was seriously wrong but could not figure out what it was. By the end of January, I found out. I had noticed a few red splotches on my right breast, but they looked like dry skin, or a detergent reaction. By February, I decided to consult a doctor. I went through a mammogram, and the ultrasound mammogram.

This is when I realized I needed to take better care of myself. For those of you who have been in this situation you will understand. When they tell you that you have cancer and pretty definite you have a malignancy, you feel singled out and you cry your heart out because your life is over pretty much as you knew it. I called my friend and cried that day, then went on to work. I told my daughter and my husband that I had decided to wait until they were absolutely positive. My reasoning was that my husband had lost both his parents to cancer, and wasn’t in the greatest health as well. My husband had heart disease, and the shock may be too much for him. We had a very deep love, and felt we had been together in a previous life. He sent me a dozen of the most beautiful long stem roses to work for Valentine’s Day.

I went through chemo and radiation and completed the procedure by December of 2006. Earlier that summer as I was browsing the computer, I decided to close the computer down and go to my room. There in the floor in the middle of the doorway laid the birthday card I had gotten for my sister. It was the most beautiful card, and had lost the envelope. Immediately when I saw the card, I told my son an angel put this here for me. Suddenly my thoughts were, “Oh no something terrible is wrong”. I sent her letters and did not receive a reply. We went to their house – nobody was home. Finally, a few days later I spoke with my sister.

I told her my story, not aware of her own problem. Later, her husband told me I freaked her out with my wig. Throughout our conversation I just knew I had to save her. I saw her husband with their two kids, one on each hand. Totally lost, I did not know where to go, or what to do. He had promised her that he wouldn’t tell about her problem. I found out January 2007 she had breast cancer during the same time frame as mine. My sister’s cancer started in the spring of 2006. My lovely baby sister passed away . One day after my birthday, in August of 2007.

Meanwhile, my daughter had a serious relationship with a man twelve years older than her. My husband received a new defibrillator in May with hopes this would help him. My daughter got married in June, broke up two weeks after my sister died, and divorced by Feb of 2008.

Since that July in 2007, my daughter’s cat would get sick and couldn’t eat. Then Dad goes back to the hospital. Her cat that she had since childhood died just a week before my husband died.

The Wednesday before he died I sat in the family room eating popcorn, but for some reason I was smelling potato salad. My husband loved his Mother’s potato salad. I thought out loud, “She’s having a party for him”. This is a little freaky. But, every time I came into our bedroom, and closed the door. I would beat the mattress, and scream “no- no -no!” That Wednesday night I so wanted to see him and cried throughout the night.

Since my husband passed I have learned many lessons. The first night I saw the orbs, glowing spaced out around the room. The orbs are bigger than marbles, and sort of glow. I knew it was my husband’s mom, Dad, Nanny, and Bill, his best friend that had passed away in 2003. As soon as I started talking to them , they start dancing around.

One evening my alarm clock started playing Honey Pie-Sugar Pie. Of course I was hysterical again. It really shook me up. I had gone through his notebooks from work and as I flipped the pages I saw in a different color ink…Love Phil. I flipped through a few more times and knew he was sending me a message. I had a heart to heart talk with him about our son. My bedroom door was cracked, but it looked like daylight outside my door.

On yet another night I saw a light over my headboard. I attempted to debunk it, but there just wasn’t an explanation. These were his spirit light that I had wanted to see.

One morning as I was waking up, I felt his whiskers against my cheek. I had probably asked him to hold me so that I could sleep. I missed him holding me and maybe this was just his way of letting me know he is still here.

For years we smelled cigarette smoke that appeared to travel in different parts of the house. I realized it was his Dad or his Mom and Dad simply watching my husband as his health continued to fail. I had seen the fog like clouds in my room, shadows, rolling across the floor. My sons friends have had someone play with their hair. One said he heard someone call him.

Last summer we were refinishing the floors. I had broken my foot, and everything was in turmoil. As the three of us sat there at the kitchen table, we heard fifties music playing.

I have learned that all my feeling , smells, sounds, and sightings are something special. I know there are many spirits with me.

I have loved , and cared for lots of people and animals. They are here to watch over us, and protect us. Most of my life, I had nobody to talk to about these things. Finally I know I’m not crazy. I feel we are blessed, to have these experiences. My son has his experiences also and has me to guide him. Hopefully, I can do the job.

With Christmas gifts still on my mind and with the gift of a whole new year stretching ahead, I always ask myself in January what has really meant the most in my life. When I was younger, I looked for answers in large things—big presents, big events, etc. I soon realized these were not the most meaningful. The greatest gifts were the small ones that let me know that life is eternal. One such gift came from my older sister, Fatima, who moved on in 2007.

Fatima loved holidays and always tried to get each person on her list a unique gift. Late in her life, while she was suffering from a stroke and heart problem, she had my nephew’s girlfriend purchase a Rooster Cookie Jar for me. The girlfriend was reluctant to do this because she knew I had no great love for roosters. Mom had a couple of roosters that used to fight me when I was a child. I’d run to Fatima yelling with my childish lisp, “Thister! Thister! Help! The old rooster’s after me!” She would come to my aid!

Through the years, that became a joke between us. When one of us would have a problem, we’d call the other and say, “Thister! The Old Rooster’s after me!” And the other would help solve the problem. The rooster cookie jar was a wonderful gift that reminded me of that.

Fatima was bedridden from the stroke for three long years. I helped all I could, but her condition eventually required treatment we could not give at home. She had to be placed in a nursing home where she hoped she’d never be. The Old Rooster was there indeed, and I had failed to help her. I felt very burdened by that failure.

Fatima’s last day on earth was February 1, 2007. Christmas of 2007 was the first Christmas in my entire life that we spent apart. I hoped she would appear in some ghostly form, but she didn’t. I felt she was near, but there was no visible sign.

Then late on Christmas night, I was thinking of a long poem Fatima had helped me learn for a school program when I was in the second grade. We had lost our copy, and had been unable to find another even on the Internet. The teacher had not given us the author’s name or the book it came from, so we finally gave up looking. Suddenly Fatima’s face flashed vividly into my mind. Go to the computer and type in the title of the poem. She didn’t say the words aloud, but that was the message she sent. I had done that before without success, but I decided to try one more time. As soon as I typed in the title, the entire poem came up on the screen! Someone who had a blog for home schooling had just posted it, and he wrote that he had no idea why!

I printed out the poem and all the information about it, and Fatima’s face flashed in my mind again. She sent me another mental message:

Stop worrying! It’s okay! My stroke was one Old Rooster too big for you to fight! Think about the good things and move on!

My burden immediately lifted. Her understanding was a great gift, but I realized she had managed to give me a unique, tangible gift, too. In my hand was the printout of the poem we had loved and searched for together. I would never have looked for the poem if she had not directed me.

I truly believe she is often with me, and I am convinced that life, the greatest gift of all, is truly eternal.

As we delve into winter and the threat of cold and the flu season looms overhead, I am reminded of some fascinating articles about the ocean and it’s healing abilities. Can the ocean, sea air, and sand actually have natural healing powers? There is so much more to the ocean than just its majestic beauty and extraordinary sea creatures. I have always thought of the beach as a spiritual place, and a place where an overwhelming since of tranquility can embrace you if you allow it to. If your mind is at peace, your body can be well too.

I had a recent experience that allowed me to see firsthand just how amazing being at the ocean can be. My son had chronic tonsil and ear problems over the winter in 2008. The last bout of tonsillitis caused snoring and sleep apnea. I took him to an ear, nose, and throat specialist and she advised me that me that my son’s tonsils were swollen and probably holding on to a virus making it nearly impossible for him to feel well. My son would actually stop breathing for several seconds many times during the night. I felt helpless as he gasped for air. The specialist took a wait and see approach over the summer. During one of our summer visits, I told her we were planning our annual vacation to the beach. I wanted to make sure it was all right to go, and she said that once we arrived at the ocean we would see almost immediate relief from the apnea and snoring. Not only that, but she was sure the swelling would go down as well. I asked “Why?” Her answer was a simple, “because of the sea air”. Within a week of being at the beach, the snoring ceased. The apnea ceased. More amazingly, the tonsils actually were at their normal size again. Unfortunately by the time fall arrived he would need to have the tonsils removed, but until that moment came, the properties of the sea allowed him tremendous relief for a period of time during his summer vacation to the beach. The ocean is a serene place and I have often heard that it has healing properties that go beyond conventional medicine. I learned first hand this summer that is true.

I am an avid reader, and have enjoyed the writings of Edgar Cayce and of The Association for Research and Enlightenment, Inc. (A. R. E.), but I never realized just how much the sea probably played a part in his readings during the last years of his life until visiting the facility one summer while on vacation in Virginia Beach. After building a hospital in Virginia Beach in 1929, he founded A.R.E. in 1931. It is written that Edgar Cayce did not choose the beach to build his hospital but rather the beach chose him. In one of his readings it is said that the water raises our vibration and therefore raises our psychic awareness.

I also learned while there that one treatment that they used at Edgar Cayce’s hospital was hot sand packs. They would take a person and pack them with hot sand and seawater. He learned while doing readings that Virginia Beach in particular had a high content of gold and was highly radioactive thus had tremendous healing properties.

Scientists believe that the body needs negative ions to have a healthy physical balance. Moving water, such as waves in the ocean, are said to release such ions into the air. Some scientists have claimed that negatively charged ions, like those found in the sea, improve many health related problems including asthma and are also said to help our psychological mood just by breathing them in. I am not a scientist, but I do know that being near the water always makes me feel good both mentally and physically.

Aside from physical health, I believe that the ocean serves our spiritual self too. I attended a workshop and learned that early mediums used seashells as a tool when developing their clairaudience. Clairaudience can be defined as the ability to hear voices from spirits that have passed on to the other side. While holding a seashell to the ear practicing mediums were able to distinguish human voices that eventually would become more audible over time. If we are open to the possibility, the ocean plays not only a part in our physical and mental health and happiness, but allows us to connect to other dimensions as well.

As I watch the seagulls glide effortlessly over the sand and surf or as I watch the dolphins playfully frolic just off of the coast I am in awe of all the sea is. The ocean has so many wonderful things to offer and if we take the time to notice, we can grow spiritually because of them. The sea may not be able to cure all of our diseases, (and we should definitely always consult a doctor), but while we are there, it may make us feel a little better. Sometimes attitude is half of the battle, and if we feel more relaxed and therefore happier as we watch the wave’s crash to the shore, are we not better off just having had the experience?

I recognize that some of us cannot make the trek to the sea as often as we would like. When I’m not able to be near the ocean, I believe there are other natural steps we can take to ensure a healthy mind and body. My dear friend practices yoga. Yoga not only tones the body, but calms the mind in the process. Meditation is another great tool that can release built up stress.

I have recently been reading and learning about chakra healing. It is the belief that the body has energy centers called chakras and the practice is thousands of years old. You can strengthen, activate and energize these areas for better health. The seven chakras moving up the body are the root, the sacral, the navel, the heart, the throat, the forehead, and the crown chakra. Chakra healing is used in holistic practices, and just may be the key to better physical health and inner peace.

Rick has a great CD titled “Your New Life Attitude”. It reminds us that if our outlook is positive, our bodies can be well too.

Wherever your journey takes you in 2010, I wish you all a happy and healthy New Year!