Posted on 18 February 2014, 9:36

When a mother, father, brother, sister, grandparent, friend, lover, wife, husband or child departs this life, many of us wonder, “Can we still have a loving connection with our dear ones, or do relationships end with death?” I don’t believe physical death ends these loving relationships. History, religion and modern-day stories of afterlife contact assures us that loving relationships continue. This is a universal experience. See the following account.

A departing vision from South Africa

Your information about departing visions left me feeling more comfortable with an experience I witnessed. My father died a couple of months ago, and we as a family, really have been missing him. Just before he died, I remember feeling kind of strange. He died of a suddenly so I wasn’t with him when he passed. I do know I just felt strange at the time of his death. I found out when he died later. Also, a couple of weeks before he died he started dreaming about his mother who had died a long time ago. He just kept dreaming about her.

The above experience shows us how both the physically dying individual and the surviving family and friends can be touched by departing visions simultaneously. The daughter said she felt “strange” at the time of her father’s passing even though she was unaware he was moving on.

A relative of mine passed just last month. At the time of his physical death I was unaware he was about to leave this life. During this same time I was very weepy but couldn’t put my finger on “why.” Several weeks later I learned from a cousin that at the ripe age of ninety-nine he had left his very tired body for the afterlife. When I looked at the timeline, I clearly saw how my tearful state corresponded exactly with the day of his physical death. Let’s look at another account which demonstrates how survivors can be visited with premonitions of an upcoming passing.

Delivering a message

Let me tell you about my experiences… I am a Jewish male, age 72, who has had these “visitations” for many years. It is not uncommon for relatives and friends who are deceased to “visit” with me. Sometimes they deliver messages and sometimes they are just there. Also, many times I am awakened during the night, sit up in bed and see these “forms” moving around the room.

Before experiencing my own departing visions, I would have scoffed at this account. Today such shares astonish me. The above encounter once again shows us that communication between our physical world and the afterlife does continue and that the death of the body doesn’t sever loving relationships. Our departed relatives don’t abandon us. Love crosses all boundaries. They are right there with us, especially when we need them.

When I’m at the funeral of a family or friend I often receive quick, sharp mental impressions of the physically departed being right there, looking to see who has come to the event! At times the comments I hear from these souls have made me chuckle. Once, a dear friend of mine in spirit form commented on one of the mourners attending his funeral. Suddenly I heard, “What is he doing here? He didn’t like me when I was alive!” Shocked and surprised, I started to laugh out loud during a very solemn prayer!

Here is an afterlife contact experience similar to what I just shared with you.

Sardines and peanut butter

We were all pretty young when my grandfather died. There were about eight of us cousins who attended my grandfather’s funeral and all of us were still in elementary school. He had lived a very long life so his death wasn’t unexpected. Regardless, sitting there with my cousins I remember we shared a tissue box. He was well loved and we were going to miss him.

My grandfather was a World War Two Vet and I think he must have seen some pretty terrible sites in Europe, because he never did want to talk about those years. My grandmother had died ages ago and I don’t think he ever recovered from this. But, in spite of his sadness he always loved seeing me and my cousins.

Our grandfather couldn’t cook, but insisted on feeding us when we showed up for a visit. He liked to tease us with his food preferences. The sardines on crackers with peanut butter looked just awful, but he’d lap this up, and then chase this back with black coffee. He told me he ate a lot of peanut butter in the military and just happened to like sardines too. After torturing us with this concoction, he’d eventually bring out the cookies.

When he died he seemed too big for his casket and he really didn’t look like himself. I had this feeling he was looking down on his body shaking his head and saying, “Too much make-up!”

Just as the service was about to begin, this good looking couple walked up the aisle, to the casket, smiled, turned around and then walked out the church. None of us knew who they were.

After the funeral we went to my aunt’s for a bite to eat and decided to look through old photo albums. All of us kids were sitting on the floor and taking turns flipping through the old musty pages when one of my cousins found an old photograph and said, ‘Hey! Look what I found! Doesn’t this picture look like that strange couple who showed up at the church?’ All of us crowded around this one cousin and then someone said, ‘Look at the bottom of the picture. Those are the names of our great-grandparents! You don’t think that was really them do you?’ For a several seconds no one spoke. Finally someone said, ‘Let’s look at another book,’ and the topic was never brought up again.

Did the children see their great-grandparents approach the grandfather’s casket? The great-grandparents appeared to them as they did in the old photograph, when they were younger. Had they come to escort their son to the afterlife?

When we go through hard times, the physically departed return to us in spirit form. Consciousness continues and it’s this aspect of the soul that reaches out to comfort us during our time of need. With the passing of a dear one the bonds of love between the departed and the grieving aren’t broken.

When we go through hard times, the physically departed return to us in spirit form. Consciousness continues and it’s this aspect of the soul that reaches out to comfort us during our time of need. With the passing of a dear one the bonds of love between the departed and the grieving aren’t broken.

The following account brings this point home. A mother has left this dimension for the next, and her daughter has been extremely distraught. At the funeral her grief is softened when she feels her mother’s loving touch. Afterwards, she has difficulty putting the experience into words. This share comes from my cousin Betty.

A mother’s loving touch

Speaking of my Mom, it was difficult to talk about my experience last night. Never knew there was a name for it. I have only told a few people. People who are close and knew were “safe” to talk to. It happened just after I had asked myself, ‘Where am I going to get the strength to get through this funeral?’ I then felt something touch my shoulders and suddenly a great sense of wellbeing filling up inside me. I stopped trembling and stopped being on the verge of tears. All felt calm and clear.

For the rest of the funeral and burial experience I was back to being able to keep the crying and internal pain under control. Some people would say it was the presence of God. The Catholics may draw strength from a particular Saint. But for me, I believe my Mom encouraged and supported me through the funeral the way a parent would a child, or as a woman does her good friend. Apparently my mother, as a spirit, was there for me. And she continues to give me her strength and courage.  Since then there have been other times when I have asked her for support. Not only have I felt the calm and received clarity, but felt my mother touch me on my shoulders.

Betty K.

Betty’s mother was there for her when she needed her the most. Our departed loved ones will continue to provide us with support and nurturing during difficult times. At the moment of my own mother’s passing her loving touch gave me, a young sixteen year old girl, the courage to call all of my relatives and let them know her spirit had been freed from her cancer ridden body.

When the physically dying have had an afterlife visitation or vision they often try to explain to family, friends and healthcare professionals what they have just seen. In describing their celestial journeys, they are letting remaining loved ones know physical death does not mean the obliteration of the spirit. Dying is just the beginning of the journey to the next dimension. Physical death heralds the end of the trip to the afterlife. As a society we really do need to redefine the words “dying” and “death.”

In the dream below a grieving daughter is able to understand her mother will always love her.

Convinced she’s always with me

My mom passed on just this year, two weeks short of her 70th birthday. She was a single mom and I’m an only child. She gave her all to me. I was and am still so very upset about her death. Mom lived with me and she really was my very best friend. Her health problems began when she had an operation. After that I knew her time with me would be short. Having this awareness was extremely upsetting to me, but we made the best of the time she had left.

Each month Mom became more fragile, but she rarely complained so I don’t think I knew just how close to the end she was. Eventually she suffered a series of debilitating strokes and this left her unable to speak to me. Thankfully I was able to be at her bedside, comforting and loving her right up until she passed away.

Because I was so shook up by first her strokes and then her passing, I completely forgot about a dream I had about my mom until after her funeral. I actually had this dream just a few days before she passed.

In my dream I saw Mom is a very large building with tall Grecian columns. Large numbers of people dressed in right were trying to get through two gigantic doors. Right in front of me was my mother. I knew it was her because of the color of her hair and a certain style of hat she was wearing. Mom was rushing to get through the doors and this made it difficult for me to keep up with her. Once she made it to the doors, they opened and a very bright light came streaming out. Once past the doors I saw that there were a lot of other people with her and that she was actually on an elevator. Everyone was dressed in white. She turned around and looked at me just as the doors closed.

I never realized this dream was her way of letting me know she was going to be okay. Since she couldn’t talk to me before she died, this dream now makes sense. I finally realized this while I was picking up her ashes from the funeral home. It was her way of telling me she wasn’t really leaving me.

Today, I really miss her, but because of this dream I’m convinced she’s always with me. She was just concerned about me, as was her way, and she wanted me to know where she is.

There are several points I want to make about this particular departing vision. First, the bond this woman had with her mother was very strong. Again we see another relationship based on a life time of respect and love. When the mother experienced a sever stroke, she was unable to physically speak with her daughter. Trapped in a body that was no longer serving her must have left her feeling frustrated and powerless.

As her spirit begins to separate from her paralyzed body, this mother was finally able to visit her daughter in a dream. She then let her daughter know she was alright, that she still loved her and would always be there for her.

The daughter was very upset with her mother’s stroke, so she was not in an emotional place to see the dream for what it was; a message of love and hope. Only after her mother physically passed was she able to truly understand the departing vision. As a result of this dream, both mother and daughter know they will forever be linked to one another.

I must also add that within this departing vision are common themes of an afterlife or heaven. The daughter says that in her dream everyone is dressed in white, and the Grecian columns are tall. During a departing vision, descriptions of heaven, the afterlife or the next dimension are common. A colleague of mine said she was amazed as she listened to her physically dying aunt describe to the family at the bedside visions of heaven. Her descriptions of the afterlife brought the grieving family a sense of peace.

As departure for the afterlife draws near, knowing who will be greeting us and where we will be going, is most reassuring. Love crosses all boundaries and dimensions.
Carla Wills-Brandon, a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, is also the author of 13 published books discussing topics ranging from;

• Food disorders
• Addiction
• Holistic Health
• Relationships
• Dealing with teens, children of trauma, addiction
• Healthy intimacy and sexuality
• Sexual healing
• Trauma resolution and PTSD
• Recovery from grief, loss and death,
• Afterlife research and spirituality
• The Departing Visions of the dying

One of her published books, Learning to Say No: Establishing Healthy Boundaries was a “Publishers Weekly Best Seller. The author has lectured across the U.S. and U.K., and has appeared on numerous national radio and television programs, such as Geraldo Rivera, Sally Jesse Raphael, Montel Williams, Coast to Coast Radio Show with Art Bell and George Noory, Uri Geller’s Coast to Coast Radio Show and Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher. Wills-Brandon has also appeared on several programs with her husband, Licensed Clinical Psychologist Michael Brandon, PhD.

A Glimpse Heaven is published by White Crow Books and is available from Amazon and other online bookstores. Her other books on departing visions, One Last Hug before I Go: The Mystery and Meaning of Deathbed Visions and Heavenly Hugs: Comfort, Support, and Hope from the Afterlife can also be found on Amazon.com