A Loving Goodbye

Full transcript of the My True Ghost Stories episode “A Loving Goodbye.” Listen to this episode.

A lifetime of love and heartfelt exchanges leads to one last goodbye from a father to his family. Welcome to episode 52 of My True Ghost Stories. I have a friend who I will call Terry for this podcast, as I always change the names, and my friend Terry is very spiritual and also from what I can tell was very close to her father. She spoke of him often, they spent a lot of time together, they lived near each other. It was a very healthy relationship as far as I could tell.

And at the time of this story, her father had started to experience a decline in his health and in his cognition. Also at the time of this story, my boyfriend's father was in an assisted living facility, and he was on the memory care floor, which is for people with cognitive decline. So as we were having one of these conversations about Terry's dad, my boyfriend recommended this facility, as we were very happy with it. And because of this recommendation, their fathers wound up in the same facility on the same floor. So we were visiting my boyfriend's dad one day, and we used to play music for him.

That's a whole story in itself, but his dad was hardly talking anymore, but we would bring a guitar, and we would sing these old hippie folk songs that he used to sing when he was a young man. And his eyes would light up, and he would just start singing along with us. Eventually, my boyfriend's dad got a roommate in his room on the memory care floor. And this roommate was having the beginnings of dementia, but was still very alert. So we had a little conversation with him, and it turned out that he, in his career during his life, was a percussionist for a very well-known salsa singer.

So since we were in the practice of playing music from people's youth for them, I decided to play some old-school cha-cha for this roommate. And me and this roommate started doing a cha-cha together, so he was also very physically fit, as well as cognitively alert. So after we had finished playing folk music for my boyfriend's dad, and dancing a cha-cha with his roommate, it was time for the residents to go have lunch. So we went out into the hallway bringing my boyfriend's dad and his roommate to the lunch room, and as we entered the hallway, we saw my friend Terry, and she was standing outside one of the rooms, and she was visiting her dad. Now, her dad was in hospice on this memory care floor, and he was going to stay in his bed, and he was not going to go to the lunch with the rest of the residents.

So after we saw my boyfriend's dad and his roommate into the lunch room, and they were brought to their tables by the aides, we went back to Terry's father's room to say hello to all of them. And when we entered this room, it was a beautiful scene. First of all, the room was really sunny, so it was beautiful to see, and there was the dad sleeping peacefully in the bed, and the family was sitting around, calmly sitting around, quietly talking, and my boyfriend just described it as a loving feeling, and it was indeed a beautiful scene, and it was somehow full of love. Nothing specific was happening that would make you think that it was just this feeling of calm, of family, and of love. So there was Terry, her partner, an aunt, and a cousin, that's who was in the room.

And during some chitchat between my boyfriend and I, and this family, we mentioned the roommate who used to be the percussionist for a famous salsa singer. When we mentioned this, the cousin who was there exclaimed, he said, that singer's mother raised me, and it turns out that she ran childcare out of her home in one of the boroughs of New York City, and he grew up there. He also told us that her sons, salsa band members, were always coming in and out of the house, while he spent time there as a child. I said, let's bring you to meet this roommate. So we brought that cousin into the lunch room where we saw the roommate, and despite a very loud radio playing pretty much on a shelf right over his head, we were able to converse, and I was able to introduce them, and the roommate remembered him, and the roommate gave some identifying details of this cousin as a little boy that brought tears to Terry's cousin's eyes.

It was obvious that he did indeed remember him, and this was this beautiful connection. And I know that soon afterwards this roommate had a very quick deterioration, so I was so glad that this exchange between Terry's cousins and him was able to happen. And it obviously brought them both a great deal of joy. And again, this is the theme of this story. Again, in that lunch room between this roommate and the cousin, there was that loving feeling.

And a week or so later, I got a message that Terry's dad had passed away, and I got some information about where the wake would be. It was at a funeral home near my house, and the hours were of course two to five and seven to nine. Since I got out of work in those days, around five p.m., I chose to go to the seven to nine slot. I drove over to the funeral home. I actually found a parking spot on that block.

I entered the funeral home, and the wake for Terry's father was actually the only wake that was going on in that funeral home that day. And as I walked down the hallway, I could hear the din of conversation, laughter, and it was almost like I was walking into a party. I made it down the hallway, and I made the right into that room. And again, I got a rush of that loving feeling that I had felt in that hospice room on the memory care floor, and in that lunch room with the roommate and the cousin. Here again was that feeling of love.

So Terry's dad had been in his 90s, and he had been sick. So this was not a tragic passing. It was definitely sad, but the wake had that feeling of a celebration of life. And there were many people that I knew there, and there was lots and lots of conversation and reunions happening. As I spent time having conversations, and looking at the picture boards that they had made for Terry's father, the whole time I was there, I did not sense his spirit.

They are often hanging around at wakes, but I did not sense him at all. And to be honest, I was very busy talking to people. So I was not looking for the spirit, but I did not get any obvious signs that the spirit of Terry's father was there at that wake. The spirits of those who have passed on are often at the wake, but not always. So this celebration of life slash wake was so engaging that I just kept talking and talking and talking to people.

And I realized that it was getting close to 9 p.m. and that I was the only person that was not part of the core family. And I was chatting with a woman who was very close friends with Terry and was almost part of their family. And I looked around and I realized, oh, it's just the core family now. And this is the last session of the wake.

And I should probably leave. But I do think that I was held there for a reason. I realized I needed to leave, but I also needed to use the restroom before I left. So I said my goodbyes and I headed out, but first I made a right and headed down the long hallway to the restroom. As I exited the restroom, I looked down the hallway.

And down the hallway to the left now was the door to the room where the wake was happening. And this is why I think I was held there for so long to the end of the wake where I was the only non-family member there. As I stood there looking down the hallway, I saw Terry's dad walking out of the room. And he was swinging a scarf around his neck with one hand and he was putting a cap on his head with the other hand. So he was obviously leaving.

So I stood there and I saw him. He stopped in his tracks. He looked up and then he looked at me and me and this spirit made eye contact. And simultaneously he said, I should go back in and say goodbye. And I said, you should go back in and say goodbye.

That was the whole exchange. He nodded and he turned around and went back inside. I continued on out the door. I was not going to go back into the room that was truly now just core family ending this wake together. But as I left, I felt glad to know why I had stayed there so long.

I had stayed there so long so that I could confirm for the spirit of Terry's dad that he needed to say goodbye before he left. About a week and a half later, I ran in to Terry and her partner. Now Terry knows that I'm a medium. So she told me, I didn't feel my father's spirit the whole time at the wake. But right at the end, she said when it was just me and my family, I felt him join our circle just for a moment and say goodbye.

I listened to this story and I was so pleased to know that he had indeed gone all the way in and said goodbye even though it looked like he had really been headed out there and almost forgot to say goodbye. So after listening to her story, I told her, yes, that's exactly what happened. And I described to her him walking out the door and putting his scarf on and putting his cap on his head and that he and I decided together that he needed to go back in and say goodbye. After I finished this story, Terry and her partner looked delighted and they said that that was exactly what he would have done. They were also delighted to hear that it looked like he really had someplace to go and that he was going to be fine on the other side.

Now besides seeing Terry's dad in the hospice and that quick exchange I had with his spirit at the wake, I really did not know him at all. But I can conclude that that loving feeling that we felt everywhere we went that had something to do with him, that he had done a great job on this earth and that wherever he is going now, he will continue to spread that loving feeling. As always, if you have enjoyed this episode of My True Go Stories, please take a second to review, subscribe, share it with a friend to help this show grow and if you enjoy short stories from me, you can subscribe to the Patreon where I tell a weekly short story about my regular life and the link to the Patreon is in the show notes. And that's all for today. Thank you for listening to today's episode and if you think your house is haunted, want energy cleared from your space or need a custom spiritual ritual, I'm here to help.

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