In honor of Halloween and Dia De Los Muertos I'd like to share with you an experience that I had a decade ago while Frank and I were traveling in New Zealand. It shows the depth of love and caring that those in spirit can express to us across the veil.
We had just arrived in Wellington from the Ferry and hadn't yet rented a car. So we decided to share a taxi van with several other travelers. The driver set off to deliver all of us to our respective destinations.
Frank and I had been availing ourselves of farm stays and home stays and had arranged with an older woman named Sylvia. She had shared with us on the phone that she was looking for a way to make a little more income and thought she'd try opening her home to visitors. We were to be her first guests.
As the cabby and I were busy rearranging and unloading bags from his trailer onto the sidewalk, Frank, alternating with a stately elder gentleman, were shuttling our bags up to the front door of the house. The man smiled and murmured a few words in my direction as he gathered up our things and I looked forward to being properly introduced at the door, once we were all ready to go in.
When I entered the house, I was cordially greeted by Sylvia and she showed us to our room. Frank went with her to see the rest of the house as I excused myself to briefly freshen up. Before I had made ready to leave the room, Frank returned and said that the place was very nice and that Sylvia loved tennis and was in the middle of watching a game.
I asked how her husband was and if Frank had enjoyed meeting him. He said, "No, Sylvia shared that her husband is dead. He and their two teenaged children died in a car crash late one night the previous year." I said, "Well, who was that man then?" Frank asked "What man?" I went on, "The older gentleman who was collecting our bags." Frank said he hadn't seen anyone. He went on to say that Sylvia had shown him a photo of her family. It was up in the kitchen. I went up to look at the photo and there he was, smiling at me with Sylvia and their two children by his side.
I suddenly knew that being as we were her first in-home-guests, he had come to make sure that all was well before she embarked upon this new venture. Frank and I had apparently passed his purview and were welcomed by him into their home.
With love, only love, a very Day of the Dead to each of you.
© Josephine Laing, 2014
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