Bereavement (Group) - I'd like to share this letter I wrote

[left-of-center2012]

I do not usually include letters in Christmas cards, but I thought this year I'd include this to several 'special folks' on my list:

Back around 1995 I was working a hospice facility job that was OK.
OK pay and benefits, but nothing inspiring and some days were a chore to get through.

But there was a woman there, a coworker name of Irene, who made every day we worked together a joy. She was the most pleasant person, full of fun and laughter. She was a married woman with a couple kids. Her younger brother also worked there. He was a nice guy but didn’t have her ‘bubbling pe rsonality’. She and I went out twice to visit an elderly man who had been a patient of ours, someone who had no one in his life. He died soon after our last visit.

Well, our lives took different paths. I left for another job and I heard she quit working the following year to be a ‘stay at home mom’. She faded from my memory after a couple years and I had not thought of her for the past twenty plus years. “Out of sight, out of mind”?
Gone from my memory the past twenty plus years.

One day this past summer she popped up again in my thoughts for no apparent reason. Nothing happened to remind me of her. She just showed up in my brain, and I recalled the pleasure I got from having known her and what a ‘jolly’ person she was.

After a couple days of thinking of her I decided to look her up on the internet and contact her to tell her how much I enjoyed working with her.
I found her ... I found her obituary.
She had died a few days earlier on the day her memory resurfaced in my mind.

I don’t know how this happened. I don’t know why. I just know it did.
There is much we do not know until we cross over and get the answers.

Merry Christmas

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Thank you for this lovely memory, my dear left-of-center2012...

There is much that we don't understand. I hope someday that we will.

[SheltieLover]

2. Well...

I interned in bereavement at a hospice.

The #1 concern among clients is that they felt they were "going crazy" because they could hear, feel, see, or smell their departed loved one.

I'd always ask them "If you died, where would you go? To sone mystical place, or look after your family & friends." I could always see the 💡 come on in their eyes, as they always said look after family & friends.

Perhaps she visited you. 👍

[orleans]

3. perhaps she came around to say goodbye, or to let you know

you were a good/positive part of her life back then -- same as she was for you
or maybe she just wanted to see how you were doing
unless you're psychic i'd say you started thinking of her b/c a part of you was sensing she was near
nice story