Grama woke up visibly distraught today and told us about her dream. Tried assuring her that a death dream just means change and that she's experienced a boat load of it in the last 9 months. She raised and eyebrow and said " Do you believe that stuff? " Heck yeah I do!
She had a dream she was walking on a beautiful green hill. She was joined by several deceased relatives including her Mom,Dad,brothers. She said she felt very good and peacefull. Suddenly she looked up and could see them but they were no longer close to her...they were all off in the distance..then they disappeared.
When she told me that I wondered if she came close to death at that time. That was over a year ago and she is still with us and doing much better healthwise.
My grandmother (dad's mom) saw my aunt (her daughter) and my dad before she died. They had died 19 years and 10 years before she did. She started seeing them and talking to them maybe two weeks before she died. So it just depends on the person. I think in my mil's case she is preoccupied with death, having lost so many loved ones, that she wants to die too. I can't judge. She lost three children. That would devastate even the most heartless person on the planet I would think.
To understand some of the particulars, my mom was raised primarily by relatives, as her mom was unreliable, both in Great Neck and in Rhode Island. I don't know how old she was at the time of the incident, but I think she was around 11 or so. This occurred during the time she was in Great Neck. Several of her uncles and cousins also lived in the same house. (I am foggy on details.) A few of them worked for the times as reporters and in other capacities. Anyway, one of the uncles had bought a pair of slippers for another of the cousins or uncles for Christmas, but the intended recipient died before Christmas. Yet another uncle appropriated the slippers since 'uncle joe' wasn't going to be needing them anymore.
Fast forward to a few days after Christmas. Mom was sitting at the kitchen table eating breakfast. The appropriating uncle (one of the ones who worked at the Times) came downstairs laughing fit to kill himself. When asked the humor "hahaha, Uncle Joe came to me in a dream and said he was returning for his slippers on January 19." He took a flat pencil (to keep them from rolling off desks), circled the date and said 'let's just see if he comes back for them."
The appropriating uncle died in the wee hours of January 19. Made quite the impression.