by Darlene Zagata

Created on: March 01, 2009

I can't honestly say that I've ever really seen an apparition or had any type of direct contact with the deceased but I do believe they've visited me in dreams. About two weeks after my mother's death, I had a very vivid dream in which my mother appeared and told me that she was fine. My mother seemed calm and content in every aspect and seemed to have one goal which was to assure me that she was well. Her appearance in my dream did leave me with a sense of peace. I felt more at ease following the dream.

A few years later, my husband passed away. Several days after his death, I had a series of dreams in which he appeared. The dreams weren't as reassuring as the one in which my mother appeared. In fact, they were a bit troubling since my husband didn't know that he was dead. In the dreams, he wasn't reassuring me that he was fine but rather was coming home as if nothing had ever happened.

In the one dream, my son told his father that he was no longer a member of the living. My husband didn't believe him so then my son asked me to tell him the truth, which I did. My husband simply dismissed the revelation by declaring that we were all crazy. In another dream, my husband was very upset about the damage to his car. Once again, he didn't seem to realize that he was dead. In this particular dream, I didn't seem aware of the fact that he was dead either. He kept expressing his concern over the car. I made mention that he should be more concerned with the state of his body. He then replied that his body was fine and once again stated that it was the car that was in shambles.

I believe that the difference in these dreams may be due to the manner of death. My mother suffered from a massive stroke and was comatose for several days. She had suffered from ill health for many years. My husband's death, on the other hand, was abrupt and totally unexpected since he died from injuries sustained in the car accident. I have read that people who die suddenly and tragically may not realize that they are dead. I believe this may have been the apparent significance of the dreams in which my husband appeared since he did not seem to realize his condition. My mother delivered a simple message to relieve my despair by letting me know that she was okay.

Although I have never seen a ghostly figure in my waking state, I do not doubt that they exist and have been seen by others. There is much that we do not yet understand. I do believe that life is internal and that there is an existence beyond the physical. Just because we do not see it or understand it, does not mean that it doesn't exist. I also believe that our loved ones reach out to us from beyond the grave in a variety of ways. We just need to be open to those ways in order to receive and decipher those messages from beyond.

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