Sometimes, if you are
lucky, life puts things in your path that are unexpected. Things that you would not normally choose to
do.
Life did that to me today.
My sister Annette has
wanted to go see a psychic for several years.
The first I knew of it was when both sisters were visiting us in DC, and
we drove by a psychic on the main street near us, her neon sign glowing in an
otherwise dark window. “Wouldn’t that
COOL to do?? Wouldn’t it be FUN to see a
PSYCHIC??” Annette said from the back seat.
Ummm, no… No, it wouldn’t be “cool” or “fun”. It would (I jadedly thought) be one or a
combination of these things: hokey,
scary, fake, terrifying, and utterly depressing if she told us something awful
that was going to happen in the future. “WHYYY
would I want to know the trials and tribulations future me was going to have to
suffer?” I thought. “Can’t we just wait
until the bad stuff hits and deal with it then???”.
But then Annette got diagnosed
with brain cancer.
And then our last parent,
our dad, died suddenly.
And then our friend
raved about a psychic (medium?) that she had gone to in Omaha, the very town
the 3 Thompson Sisters often hang out in together.
And Annette still wanted
to do it. So, even though it was going
to be $69 EACH for us to sit in there and listen to the psychic talk only
to Annette (cuz I didn’t want any part of the woo-woo, thank you very
much, but I was willing to pony up the money to support my sissy), I said yes to
the nutty idea.
Our appointment was
today. I worked overtime on the weekend
so that I could take a couple of hours off to join in on the session. My sisters were adamant that we NOT tell the
medium anything about us. “Let her
figure it out!”, “Don’t give any hints!!”.
Ok, ok sissies!! They had told
her we were sisters, but I think that was it.
Annette has been feeling a
bit off balance lately and moving slower, but we told her there was no way on
God’s green earth that she was walking into this appointment with her CANE,
thank you very much. That was way too
big of a “tell”. We wanted this psychic
to WORK for her money! And no using the
handicap parking permit, either! No, we
were WALKING into this one, and Annette even added some extra “giddy” into her
step going down the hallway.
Which turned out to be
good, because before we could even KNOCK the door opened, and there stood Viktoria
Santo…
“Did you hear us coming down
the hallway??” Sherry asked. “No,” said
me, the snarky disbeliever, “She felt us”. Hardy har har, right?
Of course, she could
easily have a camera pointed in the hallway.
She knew our appointment time. We
were giggling loudly. I wasn’t going to
let this lady off with a little stunt like opening the door before we announced
our presence!
Her office was NOT
spooky. There were no spider webs. It did not smell of incense. It was not lit only by patchouli scented
candles. Instead, it looked clean, crisp, and a bit
Crate and Barrel-esque, with a bit of spiritual thrown in for good measure.
She let us choose our
seats (all comfy choices) and she sat down.
It was then I noticed the book under the coffee table entitled (I kid
you not): “Do Dead People Watch You
Shower?”. I couldn’t stay silent. I couldn’t!!
“Ummm…” I said as I held up the paperback, “Now THIS makes me a bit
nervous…”. She smiled a knowing smile,
paused, and said, “I can answer that.
NO. No, they do not”.
Whew. Now that we had THAT out of the way, we could
begin.
Viktoria was a calm, kind
presence. She wore no make up and had
thin brown hair. Her accent was also
calming – it was Hungarian. She put us
at ease by taking 5 – 10 minutes to explain what we were going to
experience. “It will not be scary,” she
assured us. “There will be no
ghosts. Lights will not flicker. If you hear noises, it is just my co-worker
in the other room over there,”. Ahhh,
ok. So, no Ouija board, no speaking in
tongues, no closing our eyes while she rummaged through our purses and phones
to try and find out our secrets and parrot them back to us. OK, maybe I could relax for this… And get this, I was impressed when she then
set her timer (because without it she said she would go on and on). Yup, she wasn’t counting the whole “find a
seat, get comfy, let me tell you what to expect” – all of that was not included
in our time session. I was starting to
like Viktoria more and more!
And then she began.
I think no more than 25
words came out of her mouth before my first tear fell.
Look, I am what I call a
REALIST. I believe that when a person is
dead, they are dead. They are gone. I don’t think they are up in heaven watching
over me. I don’t think they are making
sure I don’t get in a car accident by being my angel. I think they have had their time in this
life, enjoyed it (hopefully), and have moved on. (Note:
though I DO like to pretend to myself that my deceased neighbor Carol
visits me in the form of butterflies…)
But people – VIKTORIA KNEW. She knew.
She says she can communicate with people on “the other side”. And after spending 90 minutes with her, I believe
her.
She actually said we ALL
can do that if we can clear our minds and listen. I wonder if that is what happens when I dream
of people “on the other side” (last night I dreamt of my dad).
Anyway, SHE KNEW. The first person to “talk” to her was our
mom. She knew so much about her – she was
organized, a bit bossy (though Viktoria wasn’t sure how to tell us that one
without sounding rude). She was very
MOTHERLY. “And her name… Her name…
I am getting an M…” (3 sisters jaws drop loudly to the floor.) “An M-A…” (I metaphorically crap my pants…) “It is MARY or MARGARET…” “IT’S MARY!!!” the 3 happy sisters who haven’t
seen their mom in 17 years said in unison.
She relayed messages from
our mom to us. I cried and cried. Sure, it would have been great hearing them
directly from Mom, but hey, getting through an interpreter was good enough for
us! And it all felt SO REAL – the things
she described are details no one but us, family, know.
The hair on my arms stood
up when Viktoria mentioned sensing that someone is sick now. And then Mom passed on messages about THAT,
which was so comforting. To envision
that Mom sees and is with us, that she understands what we are going through
now (and has been “present” all of these momentous occasions she has not been
physically present for) made me heart joyful.
Dad also talked to us (through
Viktoria), which was so comforting. She
described things about his life (and his death) that are not widely known. His words (through her) helped me feel more
at peace with the suddenness of his death.
She talked about other
things – a cat (nah – that one is wrong, keep going…), a man in uniform (maybe
Uncle Joe???), a Robert (we decided that was dad’s friend from Keno who died
recently), a dog (ok THAT ONE was freaky, in that she said there is a PAINTING
OF THE DOG, which there is!!! Annette
has a painting of her dog done by our amazing cousin Sara Rose!)
But guess what? MOM AND DAD KNEW WE HAVE BEEN QUIETLY
PLANNING A SISTER CRUISE! Isn’t that
mind blowing??? Not just a trip. Not a vacation. The word CRUISE was specifically mentioned
by our (dead) parents! We had been
planning one to celebrate Mary Day 2019 (which is October 20, 2019), but have
recently put it on the back burner. But now
that our PARENTS, who we MUST OBEY (right???) have spoken from
the great beyond saying that we need to HAVE FUN, GO ON THE CRUISE, AND ENJOY
LIFE – well, we would be disobedient not to go for it, right???? (P.S. – she also told us how Mom and Dad
seemed to be dancing around, and that MOM really loved dancing and Dad sort of
just did it to make Mom happy. That was
sweet. AND that, when we went on the
cruise, we should DANCE, and know that Mom and Dad were out there swaying on
the dance floor with us.)
So yeah. I went in a disbeliever. But I came out with my face covered in
Kleenex bits from crying and snotting so hard.
It was such a joy to hear
from them. Sure, they had a weird accent
today, but the message was from them. And
it did my soul good to hear it.
P.S. – and she didn’t even
charge us as much as we expected. 😊
Comments
Seriously, that was a gift. Annette mustve been tuned in a bit more than the average bear. I balwed. A good bawl. Im filled with joy for you all.