my mother died on Friday. she had emphysema, COPD , a bunch of things that finally wore her down.
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to be there at the very end, I was still on the red-eye flying out. At one point, I opened my eyes and was able to see just a small part of the outside world through a window a few rows ahead of me. My field of vision to the outside wasn't large at all, as I was sitting on an aisle and there were several heads in the way, but I could see a really beautiful bright orange moon near the horizon. It was striking and strange. I didn't know my mother had died at that point -- I wouldn't know until I landed a bit later at JFK -- so that moon means something to me now.
another weird and wonderful thing: I was with my brother later in the day -- he is taking it hard, as he has been our mom's primary caretaker and friend since she got sick, and he's my hero -- we looked out his window and sitting on his fence was a Mourning Dove. My brother said he hadn't seen a bird there all winter. It sat there for 30 minutes, looking and blinking at us. it was cold and windy enough to ruffle its feathers and make it teeter every now and then, but it was just stayed there.
and this: my girlfriend told me my clock radio lost power that night: she looked over and saw the numbers blinking and showing the approximate time that my mother passed away.
I've been a skeptic for a long time, and "I don't believe in those things," but if this keeps up, I don't know... Mom had a great sense of humor and maybe she's just messing with me. I will always miss her.
