I was with my daddy when he died. Excuse me, I was with my daddy when his spirit left his body. I drove him to
emergency room because he was having chest pains. He said that they weren’t too bad, and his color was good. He was still walking. In fact, Daddy walked into cubicle in ER and hopped up on gurney. Almost as quickly, he hopped off saying, “Whew, doggie! Feels like somebody’s got a knife in my back, right between my shoulder blades.” Daddy said it with a great big grin on his face. That’s just way my Daddy was.
A few minutes later his aorta ruptured spilling his lifeblood into his chest cavity. His lips quivered briefly as he said, “I’ll see you in a little while.”
The moment his spirit was free from his body, an ethereal serenity bathed room and flowed out into bustling hallway. The emergency department took on a surreal silence, as all motion and sound seemed to slow…then to stop. I was embraced by a joyous warmth so real that it was overwhelmingly palpable. We were no longer separate. Daddy’s spirit enfolded and permeated my being.
Is there any way to retain your loved one’s presence while navigating valley of grief? Yes, there are some things you can do right away.
First, suspend your doubting mind. Whether you look at life after death spiritually, or logically as natural culmination of evolution, or through evidence of quantum physics, you come up with same answers. Probabilities indicate that life continues after death of physical body.
Second, understand that your loved one is still here with you. Don’t say, “Yeah, right!” Suspend your doubts. Go somewhere quiet; somewhere you can be alone, even if it’s a closet. Close your eyes. Get still inside, and just stand there, or sit there and breathe. Give yourself a few minutes to calm yourself. And then imagine how you would feel with your loved one standing right beside you—so close that you can hear him breathe and feel his body heat. Pretend, if you will.
Your loved one has not “passed away” anywhere. In reality he’s closer to you than your heartbeat. There’s a thin veil between heaven and earth. Your loved one has simply passed through that veil. S/he can still hear you, see you, and touch you, but your physical body is a barrier to your being able to perceive your loved one.
Third, when you’re quiet inside, ask him something simple like “Are you here with me?”
Ahh HAH! Where did that “Yes” come from? Inside your head? Well sort of, but there’s more to it than that. Psychologists say that we all have an inner child and an internalized parent within us. In a similar way you have internalized your loved one. So what you hear are partly characteristics of your loved one that you have internalized and partly still living, growing, eternal character of your loved one surrounding you in spirit world.
The body is a mechanical device powered by chemistry. The living, thinking, loving, remembering, planning, and dreaming part of you is LIFE, and it is eternal. Life cannot be destroyed. At death of mechanical, chemical body eternal living consciousness of you is immediately aware of a sublime freedom. You are capable of seeing your spirit body for first time. And it is exquisite.
