Grandma v. The Atheist

Grandma Peggy and my sister Daria (not "The Atheist") in 2005

My grandmother passed away a year ago January. Since then, there have been several signs from her communicating to us that she is in heaven. She loved the signs that she would receive from her sister, a nun, who died in her late 20's.

The first sign was a bouquet of white roses that my aunt received from a former college roommate of my cousin's. White roses have special significance to my grandmother and the whole family. My cousin, whom I shall lovingly refer to as The Atheist, of course, had an answer: "She [the roommate] always sends white roses when someone dies."

Daria and Grandma in 2008

The next was, again, with my aunt at a restaurant with my uncle. A woman who looked very similar to my grandmother or her sister (a different sister, also deceased) was having a meal with her husband. The face disturbed my aunt so much that she switched places at the table with my uncle. Then she clearly overheard the woman say my father/grandfather's name, first and last. My uncle didn't hear it. Then she heard her say my uncle's name, pronounced the same way my grandmother used to pronounce it. My uncle looked at her and said: "I heard that!" The Atheist's response: "Right, and then they went up the staircase back into heaven..."

The next was a dream my father had and a dream I had several weeks later (I will write about this later, it's lengthy).

Finally, most recently, the story my aunt shared with us yesterday: My aunt was shopping in a busy district in Queens recently (maybe it was Manhattan...I don't remember). She felt a woman standing very close to her and my aunt was waiting for her basically to say excuse me, because she thought the woman was trying to get by. She could see the woman in her periferal (sp?) vision but when she turned to look at the woman...no one was there (of course! lol). This happened three times. Finally my aunt saw out of the corner of her eye the same woman across the room (she recognized the shape and the pink shirt) so she looked towards her and saw my grandmother looking at her, before she quickly disappeared. My aunt, who is very stoic (Irish of course!), gets tears in her eyes telling this story.

Me and The Atheist, 2005 (actually we really are this close
and joke that we are each other's evil twins)

I don't know why my grandmother is presenting her self so much - I guess I could say I don't know why God is letting her, but my sense is that she is praying for her children, especially because my grandfather needs intense care and my aunt and father have been with them providing what they need, looking after them from the time my grandmother started to have dementia until even now, when my cousin (the Atheist's younger brother) picked my grandfather up from the nursing home (he had to be specially trained to be able to transport him since my grandfather is paralyzed below the waist) so he could have Christmas with us. And I know she is praying for my cousin's conversion. I didn't hear The Atheist's response to this, maybe because she knew it was so meaningful to her mother and didn't want to detract from the experience.

Anyway, I will be writing updates because I think things may start to develop from here...