This is going to be lengthy and I apologize upfront for this. But I am not certain it can be shared with less detail than what I am going to give it. Please bear with me!

My 87 year old mother had lived with me for two years prior to her passing on May 5, 2004. As my mother had been a full-time mother and homemaker up until her early 50s when she began working as a secretary and as my father had left her with very little financial support at the time of his death, near the end of my mother's life, her savings were beginning to run short. In spite of this fact, my partner and I were determined that she would continue to live with us regardless of the financial problems that potentially were facing us. Approximately 2 weeks prior to her death, I had been having discussions with my two brothers who live 5 hours away as to the financial issues confronting my mother and myself and exploring possible ways with them for insuring that we could finanically make it while she remained with me. One of the options that I was pushing for was that my brother who was in charge of her "estate" move forward with selling her house - both my other brother and I had been pressuring him for nearly a year to do what he needed to do to get the house on the market. While the sell of her house would have brought little money in (as it was a small house in need of repair in a rural southern area), it would have been enough to have seen us through at least another 2-3 years in my being able to fully and adequately care for her my home without having the financial worries that we were facing.

Of no surprise to me, my brother who was responsible for her home decided the best option would be to put my mother in a nursing home while allowing the feds (Medicare) to take over her assets to finance nursing home care. He suggested that my other brother and I think it over - "sleep on it" as he had recommended and talk further about it the following day. My mind was already completely made up with the support of my partner - if we were to face financial ordeals, we would do it and my mother would remain with me regardless if we ever saw a penny from my brothers via the sell of her house. I had decided that I would call them in the morning and let them know that there was not anything that I needed to consider in terms of a nursing home placement - my mother would remain with me.

On the same day that my brother brought forth his "idea/solution" for dealing with the financial struggles, my parther and I had earlier in the day gone out to buy some used floatation devices for our dock. When we had returned home, I had placed my billfold and several other items on the dining room table - which is what I typically do when returning home. It is bona fide habit and one that has served me well for at least 10+ years. On the following day, after I had called my brothers to tell them "no-go" on the nursing home suggestion, I was heading out to go to the post office and went to grab my billfold. Lo and behold, it was nowhere to be found on the dining room table nor anywhere else in the house. My partner and I retraced our steps from the day before and we spent 6 hours tearing the house apart looking for my billfold. There was no billfold to be found anywhere. While there were few things of value in my billfold, I had just received a PayPal payment the day before from a client - and my PayPal atm was in my billfold and since finances were a major issue at the time, the loss of my billfold was quite significant as it would take at least a week or more before we could get a replacement card from PayPal and at least 5 days to get the money transferred into our banking account. I hestitated to cancel the card and order a new one - but finally late in the evening, after the billfold had not surfaced, we decided to proceed with cancelling it.

The next morning I was up early doing some writing before anyone else in the house awakened. As I worked, my mind still remained on my billfold and I once again did a search of our van in hopes of finding it there - thinking that maybe I had just overlooked it when we had searched the day before. Still with no luck, I came back in the house, resumed my work briefly before deciding I needed another cup of coffee. Leaving my desk, I walked by the dining room table on my way to the kitchen to get my coffee - and there lay my billfold - exactly in the spot that I had placed it two days earlier - exactly where it had not been the day before. I woke my partner up and said you are not going to believe this - and her immediate response was "it's those spirits again". Alternatively, I kept wanting to find a "logical" answer - but there was none.

So, I called a good friend of ours who is a psychic who told me that it was my oldest brother who is deceased who was trying to get in touch with me to let me know that my mother had very little time left and that he wanted me to know that everything would be ok - no need to worry about financial or other matters. I told our friend that I would be surprised if my mother would live through the summer - and she told me her passing would occur much sooner than the end of the summer - that loved ones were already beginning to gather on the other side awaiting her arrival. My friend made some comment about my mother already having a catheter and her kidneys failing rapidly. I told her that my mother was not using a catheter and that she was on antibiotics for a persistent bladder infection. I wanted to "cling" to my hope that my mother would live through the summer in spite of the message from my brother - and at some level, I wanted to "dismiss" or "play down" what our psychic friend had relayed to me. I jokingly yet earnestly told her to please tell my brother to leave my billfold the heck alone if he needed to get in touch with me again.

However, in less than a week, Hospice was involved in our lives; my mother had a catheter; and while the initial prognosis was 1 to 3 months, within a period of 1.5 weeks, my mother had passed as a result of renal failure. There were other "incidences" that occurred during the last several days of her life that I will not go into at this point. However, all were things that were clearly associated with my brother's message and the approaching reality of my mother's death.

I apologize for the length of this. However, I think it is one of those stories that can't be told without being explicit and somewhat exact about the events that occurred. I am wondering if anyone else has had similar things/signs happen to them as the passing of a loved one approached. After my mother passed, while the billfold event had been unnerving as it transpired, I was very thankful that my brother had contacted me - it gave me further knowledge and comfort in knowing that my mother was/is now with those on the other side who she had loved and missed for years. There is also comfort in knowing that in relation to things and situations that "really" matter in this world I can hopefully look forward to the ongoing wisdom and guidance of those who love me on the other side.

Anne

Good to meet you - I'm Murrday.

While I have not had that particular same experience, I'm
glad that you shared it here, as it widens the range of
known communication that those of us still in this
physical life receive from those in spirit.

And while I can understand that it would feel startling
and unsettling for the billfold to vanish and return like
that, your brother certainly knew what would catch
your attention. So he picked a sign that effectively
pointed you to his presence.

By your partner's comment about it being those spirits
again, it sounds like you've had other experiences.
Care to share about those too?

Also, I was particularly glad to see what you said
about loved ones gathering on the other side to
welcome your mother. Knowing that is a comfort to
those of us still on the physical side.

Thanks, Murrday

Good to meet you as well, Murrday.

My partner and I have had little things happen in this house of ours before - but not anything quite to the degree to which happened with my billfold. Disappearing and re-appearing spoons has been a recurrent event - and with only three people living here (one of whom was my mother who was primarily bedridden and only walked with the assistance of others or who rode in her wheelchair with assistance), my partner and I both knew that it wasn't either of us that were walking off with the spoons and hiding them from each other. As well, after my partner's oldest brother passed a few years ago, in the middle of the night, a t-shirt that she has that makes the sound of a dolphin "speaking"/"calling" which was hanging in her closet began making its call without any assistance from either of us. As it requires pressue on a particular spot of the t-shirt for the noise to occur and is not battery operated, we knew that it was not an electronic problem or a "misfire" of some sort. In response to the event with the dolphin t-shirt, my partner also contacted our psychic friend who had a message for her from her brother. I guess it is important to note that our friend primarily does channeling and considers herself as a medium who works in a healing capacity between those who are here and those who are on the other side. We have been very blessed to have her in our lives - simply because she is such a good friend in all matters - those that have nothing to do whatsoever with the otherside as well as those that have allowed us to have access to and benefit from her gifts/skills on such rare and eventful occasions in our lives.

As well, approximately a week prior to the billfold incident, on a Saturday, another friend of ours was out fishing on our dock (we live on a canal and are separated from the Gulf by only a stretch of wetlands). I was in the house with my mother and was not able at the time to go outside when he called to my partner and I to come and see the sea turtle that was swimming by and around our dock. My partner went to see it and then came in to tell me about it. What is significant about this event is that in the 10+ years we have lived in our home, we have never had the opportunity or heard of any of our neighbors having the chance to observe sea turtles in the canal. We get dolphins and manatees regularly - but no sea turtles ever. My mother, when she was a child, lived on the East coast of Florida - and had shared with me on many occasions her stories about going to the beach in the evening when the sea turtles were coming ashore to lay their eggs. After laying their eggs, they would then travel back into the Atlantic. As a little girl, my mother would climb aboard the back of the seaturtle and would stand on its back with her arms spread wide as it made its way back to the sea. This was a major and signaficant memory for her from her childhood which she considered one of those "treasures" that we hold close to our hearts throughout our lives.

However, when the seaturtle found its way to our dock on that Saturday, I was too busy in my own head with caretaking matters to really pay it much attention. I realize now that its arrival was also probably a sign - and may have been an effort by my brother to gain my attention prior to absconding with my billfold!

On the day the billfold went missing and during our efforts to find it, something in the back of my mind kept telling me that this was not truly a lost or stolen object which led to my persistent reluctance to contact PayPal to cancel the card. And maybe we all have those experiences when something of importance goes missing and that accompanying nagging sense to "put off" what needs to be done in hopes we will find that which has been lost. But you are so right - my brother knew exactly what would get my attention and hit me squarely right in the middle of my very being with its reappearance in the exact place where I had left it on a table that was not cluttered and that had been thoroughly searched the day before.

Again - nice to meet you, Murrday.

Anne

Somewhere on the spirit stories threads I think I already wrote this--but will briefly recap. My father was murdered in 1983. His 99 year old mother (my gma) was on the verge of passing but unknownst to me. For 3 nights I had cigarette smoke in my bedroom at night. Both my dad and my gma smoked so I was getting suspcious that something was going on! Then on the 3rd night, I saw dream-like that my dad was standing at the front of a long corridor, leaning up against the wall smoking--James Dean style. It was evident he was waiting for someone/something. That morning I called my uncle and found out my gma had been in a coma for the past 3 days(when I was getting the smoke) and died that night. He was getting ready to call me that morning. He asked "How did you know??"