Inner Peace: Peace beckons from beyond the grave

My article that is posted today in the Ashland Daily Tidings is an extraordinary account of a true story that defies rational explanation. Life has many miracles. We do not need to understand how it works to KNOW and TRUST there is more than the physical reality we relate to in this 3D world that captures our continual attention. ‪#‎earthisheaven‬@67

Florida captured a part of my heart during childhood when, as a family, we would drive straight through from Kansas City to Wildwood, Florida, Mom’s childhood home. Every summer we would venture that way to see Mom’s relatives and other friends she grew up with. They had children we played with. The sandy soil, humidity, lush vegetation and that Southern accent, coupled with the hospitality on front porches, were the closest thing to Southern heaven next to Southern cooking.

We sometimes stayed with the Cochran family and always felt the kids were cousins and their parents, Annette and Son, were like an aunt and uncle. Clear up into adulthood when visiting my parents in Florida, the Cochran’s were an essential part of the visit. Daughter, Teedlee, kept a loving kind of glue connecting everyone with her service-minded love, helping my parents during their decline, especially Mom. Needless to say, there was always a closeness that brought warmth and loving care between our families.

It was 2001 and I was living in central Oregon when I was awakened by the phone at 5:30 a.m. “Hello,” I said sleepily. No one responded, but I heard talking. I said “hello” a couple more times. It sounded like Sheilah and Teedlee, the Cochran sisters, talking. This incident took place just a day or so after the funeral of their mother, Annette. Teedlee lived in Wildwood but Sheilah and family were residents in Oklahoma. Sheilah was in Wildwood for the funeral.

“Sheilah? Teedlee?” I said, but they kept talking to each other and not me. It was beyond me why they didn’t answer me. Maybe they didn’t realize I had picked up the phone. I understood enough of their conversation to know they were talking about their mom and post funeral goings-on at the house. I couldn’t understand why they wanted me to hear this conversation anyway. It was private family stuff. So I hung up.

Later that day I called Teedlee and asked why they had called so early. Teedlee said they had not called. I repeated snips of the conversation I had heard. Teedlee was astounded. She told me when they were talking about those things they were walking outside. I told her the call registered on my phone as being from Sheilah. But Teedlee said Sheilah had left her cell phone back at the house.

This experience defies rational explanation. Sheilah thought it was their mom trying to make contact with them through me. Whatever the case, we all know something extraordinary happened. Some events don’t fit our views of how the world works, and we just have to accept that they happen.

I had an unsettling inner sensation with my nerves and in my heart area all day after that call came. It felt awkward to hear a personal family conversation that was none of my business. But I trusted that it happened for a reason.

I was not at peace until I shared with Teedlee and Sheilah what I heard them talking about. They knew their mom was trying to connect with them. I believe Annette was unsettled in her post death journey and needed to give her daughters a message regarding life after death. When this all settled down, a grace came into my heart. I knew it was Annette thanking me for being receptive and giving her girls a message. How it all manifested with no real phone connection but through the phone is beyond me. I simply found inner peace accepting the extraordinary gift from connecting a mother beyond the grave to her daughters. I also knew it brought Annette peace in her journey.

I am grateful to have been an inner peace emissary between the worlds as the veil that separates the living from the dead lifted for that short period of time.

As published in Ashland Daily Tidings.