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Saturday, March 26, 2011

An Angel in my Pocket

My Uncle Joe always believed that people who had died could still come back and visit him.  We had long discussions on this topic when he would come to my house on the holidays.  When he was in the hospice center and I could not go to visit him as often as I would have liked, I gave him a little charm about the size of a quarter with an angel on it.  It was an angel he could put in his pocket or on his table to remember that I was with him in spirit if I could not be there in person. 

When Uncle Joe died I got the charm back and promptly lost it.  Every so often the charm will show up when I am least expecting it, and in places that I am sure I would have noticed it, like on my kitchen windowsill or on my dresser where I put my wedding ring every night.  It usually comes around the holidays or his birthday. 

The past couple of months have been really hard on me.  It has been a horrible winter with constant cold and snow.  I am affected by Seasonal Affect Disorder, and I had spiraled down a black hole and was really having a hard time seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.  Out of the blue Ryan came out of his room and wanted to know how much this weird coin was worth.  It was the angel in my pocket. 

I have two choices here.  1.  Accept that Ryan took it since it is shiny and looks like a quarter.  Much like a greedy raccoon, Ryan will take anything that glints in the sun or could somehow be used as currency, or 2.  think that Uncle Joe came to see me to let me know that spring is coming and I need to hang in there to feel warmth on my face once again.  Guess which one I am going with?

Did I mention that it was my 40th birthday? 

3 comments:

Laura said...

Today I went to Cara's 1st Communion retreat and there were so many things reminding me of him. One was that there would be facilitators there to help families with anything they might need, even with Uncle Joe...because every family has one. I miss mine.

Unknown said...

Really sweet post, Kate. I chose option 2, too!

Anonymous said...

Great post, Kate...Ann