The Ghost in the Bluebird
My beloved Gramma Betty, my mother’s mother, died many years ago after battling lung cancer. I feel her loss still. I see her face in those of my children. I wonder if she knows they are here.
I’m in the Sacramento area visiting my aunt – my mother’s sister – who is dealing with her own cancer treatment. She doesn’t feel sick, but she is sore from surgery and she is terribly bored.
She quit smoking, but going through all of her ordeals is incredibly stressful, so she is allowing herself a half a cigarette a day, more if she’s particularly burdened. Today she stood out in her yard, savoring a Marlboro Light. A giant bluejay careened through the air and landed just feet away.
“That bluebird comes over here every time I come outside,” she said. ”Ever since my diagnosis, that bird has been hanging around. It flies by my head, it chases the neighbor’s cat away.” We looked at the jay.
The jay looked back at us.
“I think it’s Mommy,” she said.
My grandmother loved cardinals, but I don’t care what bird she chooses, I’m just glad that somehow she is comforting my aunt when she needs her mommy.
I hope Aunt Jeannie is watching do all this web/social networking stuff. And I love the bird! It looks like a bluejay. And Mommy is probably sending a message……
This is simply lovely Kim. I’ve been thinking about my own grandmother this month, who would have turned 93 right around Mother’s Day. I think I see her too, in all kinds of places. It’s comforting, isn’t it?
Hoping all goes well with treatment and I very much believe in those who have gone before us finding a way to comfort and let us know they are there when needed.
Came here from Mom-101′s tweet–amazing. My mother always said her mother came back as a bluejay. When she’d hear one chirping in the back yard, she would holler, Hi Ma!
Lovely post.
My neighbor hears her mother in the windchimes and cardinal that lives in the yard. It is nice to know that our moms are there when we need them the most, not matter what the form.
My grandmother died this past March. I could have sworn that she came by the house to check on us. Stranger things have happened.