As I was driving to the funeral home, it was late in the evening and I was racing against time. I was praying all the way there that someone would still be there. When I arrived at the funeral home my heart was heavy and my thoughts were scattered. As I walked up the sidewalk to the front door, I noticed all the lights on inside. I felt relieved. I had made it in time, they are still here!
Opening the front door, a soft ding echoed as if I had just entered a fine department store. Soft music playing, unaware I just stepped into another dimension….
Looking around and seeing no one in body, I noticed a bench in the foyer area. I sat down knowing someone had heard the front door open and would be out momentarily. I closed my eyes and began breathing deeply as I was drawing on all of the new information I was learning from my massage school training. As if I was preparing to go into a session with a client I was centering myself and becoming present in the moment.
I could feel Mom’s presence—as if she heard me come in and came right out of the back room and sat down next to me. We were communicating, heart-to-heart.
I was having what I called my own ceremony/service with my mom. It was truly magical. I had no idea how much time had passed before I heard a telephone ringing far away. It got closer and I realized the phone was ringing in the office. I thought, “Good, I will hear someone answer the phone, and I will walk back there.” But no one answered the phone; it just stopped ringing.
That gave me an idea. I walked back over to the entryway where I had seen business cards on the table. There was the phone number of the funeral home. I took my cell phone out of my purse and dialed the number, thinking, “Now I will be able to talk directly to someone in the back. After all, someone is back there—the door is open, all the lights are on, and there is music playing….”
I could hear the phone ringing in the back. It rang about three times and someone answered in a very pleasant voice. “This is the after-hours answering service, may I help you?”
“Yes, thank you.” Finally, a live person! I identified myself, telling her I had been waiting up front here for quite some time to see my mother whose body had been brought in this morning.
The voice on the other end of the phone said, “Where are you?”
I again stated, “I am in the foyer here at the funeral home, waiting to see my mother! I need to see my mother!”
The voice on the other end said, “That is just impossible! You are reaching the after-hours answering service because no one is there.”
I said again, “I am here!”
Sounding very puzzled, the woman continued, “The owner left the funeral home over an hour ago, there is no way you can be inside the funeral home. Give me your cell phone number. I will get in touch with the owner and have him call you.”
Only a couple of minutes passed before my cell phone rang. The male caller identified himself as the owner of the funeral home. He sounded very confident and professional, asking me how he could help.
I told him who I was, and where I was. He was polite and apologetic that he was called out to pick up a body and was on his way to….. He stopped in the middle of his sentence. His demeanor shifted dramatically. There was a dead silence on the other end of the line, then he asked, “Where are you?”
One more time I reported that I was inside the foyer of the funeral home waiting to see my Mother.
There was another long silence on the other end of the phone, and finally he said, “When I left the funeral home over an hour ago, I turned the lights and music off, activated the alarm system, and locked all of the doors.” He told me the front door had a both a lock and a deadbolt….
I quietly offered, “Would you like for me to lock the front door when I leave?”
He responded, “Yes, if you would, please.”
