When Ghosts Speak - Mary Ann Winkowski [72]
What was so interesting to me was that, although Mindy could not hear or see Joey, she talked to him as if she knew he could hear her. “Go ahead, go jump on Mommy’s bed,” she told him. And he jumped up and sprinted down the hall and was soon bouncing on her bed and grinning with glee. Mindy lay down on the bed and said, “Come snuggle with me.” I watched as Joey stopped bouncing and curled up next to his mother.
“He’s right here,” she told me, pointing to a spot at her right side.
Joey was, in fact, curled up right where she was pointing.
Although I knew that having Joey cross over would be the best thing for both mother and son, at that moment, I honestly did not know how I was going to convince either of them of that fact.
I began by asking Mindy if this was what she wanted for her son: to remain eternally a four-year-old, never moving on. Was this really what she thought was best for him?
And what about for her, I continued. Did she want to be a mother to a four-year-old for the rest of her life? I told her that if Joey went into the Light, he’d be able to come to her in her dreams and communicate with her in ways that he was unable to do while he was earthbound.
Mindy just looked at me and asked, “Can’t he stay with me until I die?”
Unfortunately, I find it very hard to lie when I am asked such a direct question. I had to admit that he could. But I couldn’t promise that he would. “Kids are curious,” I told Mindy. “And there may come a day when he leaves and, for whatever reason, can’t find his way back. I can’t just go out looking for him. He’ll be gone forever. Until he crosses over, you won’t know where he is or what he’s doing.”
From the look on her face, I knew I’d made some progress. She wasn’t ready at that moment, she told me. She wanted to keep Joey with her a bit longer. I told her that when she was ready to let him go, she could call me. I’d come and make the Light for him.
About a month later, I got a call from Mindy. She thought she might be ready, but for one thing: Who was going to take care of Joey in the Light? I asked the usual questions about whether or not any family members had passed away, but Mindy said that Joey didn’t know any relatives who’d died, although her own grandmother was in the hospital and very ill. “Could Grandma take him?” she asked me.
I told her I thought that was possible, and so I waited again for a call. Two weeks later it came. Mindy’s grandmother had died. I told her to tell Joey to get in the car with her and meet me at the funeral home. Of course, Grandma’s ghost was there, and once I explained the situation to her—and told her how worried I was that Mindy would change her mind—she agreed that she would take Joey with her and cross over right after the end of calling hours. I stayed until the end of the calling hours and watched as Joey, happily holding his great-grandmother’s hand, walked into the Light with her.
Teenagers
Oh, boy—teenage ghosts. I could write a whole book on these particular spirits. The most important thing to realize about teenagers, living or dead, is how susceptible to influence they can be. Parents often tell me about sudden troubles or changes in behavior that they’ve noticed in their child. When this happens, I pay particular attention to the adjectives they use to describe their teen: moody, sullen, self-conscious, sarcastic, smart-mouthed, insecure, cliquish, clannish, mean-spirited, unpredictable, emotional. By the time the exasperated adult is finished describing the teenager, I usually have an excellent idea of what type of ghost I am going to find when I visit.
Teenagers are more likely to experiment with devices and activities