We need to get lion in on this post so she can share her butterfly stories. I'll PM her.

Reading the posts brought back a memory I would like to share with you. My brother Ray was diagnosed with lung cancer in January of 2000.
My SIL was either in denial or just didn't know how to cope with the fact that my brother was not going to be around much longer. She did not want to have hospice or a private nurse so my sister Lois left her home and husband in Texas and came to stay with them in Iowa to help with his care.
Each weekend, I left my family here in Kansas and drove to Iowa to give my sister a break and spend time with my brother. During one of these visits my sister and I went to the store and while we were in the car we made a pact. If anything happened to either one of us , we would let the other know that we made it to the "other side". We decided the "sign" would be to see a feather somewhere that you least would expect it. We returned from the store, put the groceries away and Lois sat talking in hushed tones to my SIL and I sat next to my brothers hopital bed in the living room stroking his forehead or rubbing his feet to help make him comfortable. All of a sudden I see a WHITE feather falling from the ceiling! I thought I was losing it. I kept trying to get my sisters attention without interupting her conversation with my SIL all the while my eyes were glued to this feather floating from the ceiling. Finally, my SIL looks up and says " how odd, I wonder where that feather came from?" My sister and I broke down crying.We truly believe that our mother was "with" us in the car and heard our conversation and wanted to let us know that she was close and on the "other side" My brother died the next day. On June 11th, 2000 I woke up and as I started to make the bed I found a white feather at the foot of the bed. I probably would not have seen it but it was on my red robe. I decided to take a shower and then call my sister to tell her about it. While in the shower, I received the call. My sister had died.
We did not know until the autopsy that she had cancer and it had spread through her entire body.
Now every time I see a feather I remember.

Almostangel, I can't tell you how big the goose bumps I have are right now and I am all teary. What an incredible story! To know that your mother, brother and sister are watching over you and are so near must be both uplifting and eerie at the same time. Do you find yourself talking to them as if they were in the room? I think I would if it were me. What an incredible book this would make, this story should be told...

Chattylady, I don't carry on regular conversations with them . LOL Some folks would think I had lost my mind. But occassionly, I know they are trying to tell me something. The lights in the upper bedroom will go on or the sound machine will go on in the middle of the night. Or like what happened this past Wednesday. I woke up at a little after 3:oo am and could not get back to sleep, then at 4:30 I heard this howling. I woke Ian up and he went down to see what it was.
He comes running upstairs and says quick come look at the coyote. We live in Lenexa, Kansas right outside kansas city. I have never seen a coyote in the city. But , there it was in our DRIVEWAY in the well lit subdivision.

I feel blessed that I am able to still have a connection with them but it is really hard trying to figure out what it is they are trying to tell me. I always contact my sons and tell them to be extra careful in what they are doing. They never question why they just do it. A few weeks ago the sound machine in the upstairs bedroom started beeping like the alarm was set. I called my boys and told them to be careful and a few nights later my son ( the cop ) was making a routine stop when some lunatic on meth forced him to the ground, got on top of him and was choking him! He had to shoot the guy. The guy is going to be ok and has no memory of the event. My son had bruises and scratches on his neck for weeks. He called me after it happened and told me that had I not told him to be extra careful he probably would not have had is gun unholstered and would not have been able to get his gun out.

Butterflies and feathers seem to be the two things that our loved ones make contact with us from "the other side".

Perhaps because they are gentle, soothing -- non frightening in any way?

My son's first contact with his father and I came in the form of a yellow butterfly -- A few days after he died, I went out to a local nursery to buy a "memorial" tree. There were so many to choose from and as I looked from tree to tree -- a yellow butterfly started fluttering through the branches of this particular little tree with yellow flowers. I knew immediately that this was "Robert's tree". When I got home I asked my husband when was the last time he had seen a butterfly in our area and he said it was funny that I had asked because when he had walked out onto the tennis court earlier that day (his friends came and got him out of the house for awhile) this yellow butterfly fluttered in and out of the net and he had a strange feeling that Robert was standing there with him.

The next morning we both walked out to look at the little tree and there was our beautiful little yellow butterfly ---- it flew around us and in and out of the limbs on the tree and I knew in my heart that Robert was with the angels.

Another experience with a butterfly was in Tennessee when my husband and I took his mom and dad's ashes to the place where they had first dated and fallen in love. We wandered around trying to figure out where the "perfect place" to put their ashes would be when this itty bitty blue butterfly landed on my thumb. At first I thought it was Rob but then I realized it was my hubby's mom !! I asked her where we were supposed to go and she flew around my head -- around my hubby and then over this wall near where we were standing. We looked over the wall and there was a tunnel under the road --- we made our way down to the bottom of the river and let their ashes go in the swift current -- off they went together -- thru the tunnel -- along with the pretty little blue butterfly --

many times since then I have been touched by butterflies in my life -- always letting me know that I am not alone

Lion, I am so glad that you told your story! We have more then the contacts from our departed loved ones in common. My oldest son is also named Robert and goes by Rob. He just turned 30. Do you have some of the same things happen at your house that I do at mine?

Hmmmm -- you mean like the stereo that was in Roberts room and hadn't been used in almost a year going off at exactly midnight on my husbands birthday? (Rob always wanted to be the first to say happy birthday, merry christmas, etc etc)

or on Rob's first birthday after passing - Travis and Ashley (my other son and his wife and Robs best friend) came over to the house and we were standing in the kitchen talking about him when I looked over at the china cabinet and saw that all the doors were standing wide open -- thing is -- I've had that china cabinet since I was a little girl and 2 of the doors are stuck shut -- you would have to take a screwdriver or something like that to pry them open and another of the doors cant be opened because the key broke off in it -- well -- there they were -- wide open !!

I can go on and on ---

How about you almostangel ????

Exactly! I am so happy that you shared your experiences with me. I was hoping that this would be the place where I could find someone else that has the same things happen to them. Outside my family and a few really close friends I have not been able to share the experiences because I was afraid that others would think I was psycho.
We have a grandfather clock and we have the chimes turned off because it can be annoying when we are watching a movie and the chimes sound. Periodically, the chimes will go off on a particular hour. When I mentioned this to one friend she logically said that it was because the pendulum swing must have caused a vibration that moved the hammer from off to on. I listened to the logic then went upstairs to look through my records and brought down my sons birth certifcate, the chimes went off on the hour that my son was born. We were all in the same room, why didn't it go off before that? I took that as a sign that my family wanted to wish Rob a happy birthday even if they couldn't be here. Rob believes it too!
He grew up with unexplainable things happening and being a cop has not deterred that.

It is good to know that I am not alone in my personal beliefs of spirits. My DIL's father passed on six years ago and everyday for weeks all the lights began to go on and off and the stereo in Jason, my grandsons room would begin to play and only the classical station which her dad loved. We would all go to dinner and when we came home the stereo and the lights were on and were not on when we left. My DIL said she felt a sort of chill like something passing through her whenever she went into his old room. Then one day it just stopped after they moved. My DIL was certain her dad was trapped in that house. It has since been torn down for a new off ramp....Have either of you heard of or watched Char Margolis the Psychic? She is incredible!

[ April 29, 2006, 06:19 PM: Message edited by: chatty lady ]