When I was four or five years old, my cousin Sheila died of diarrhea. Her parents were living with us and she was an only daughter. I suppose she was only two years old when she died.
After the funeral, I was watching "Sesame Street" on TV, together with my dad's brother and sister. Suddenly I saw Sheila come out – no, float out – of the TV cabinet. She was only wearing this white diaper soaked with yellowish liquid. She glided on the floor, eyes blank and lifeless, and disappeared under the couch. Then she floated out again and went back inside the TV cabinet. She did this three or four times. And since I was just a kid myself, I couldn't explain how and why Sheila was doing that so I asked, in a very loud voice, to my astonished and freaked out uncle, "Why is no one taking care of Sheila's diapers? She's cold and floating on the floor." This really spooked them so much that they all screamed, grabbed me and ran out of the living room.
To this day (I'm now 29), I still cannot explain what I saw. And sometimes, when I'm in the living room alone, I dare not look under the couch or the TVcabinet, afraid of seeing Sheila – her blank and lifeless eyes – in her diapers.
November 2004
The Orange Butterfly
by James
I have two sisters, whom I will call Kim and Heather. In 2000, Kim was fighting a bout with lung cancer. One night, all the women of the family were at her house talking about this and that. The topic of reincarnation came up and they asked Kim what she would like to be reincarnated as. She stated that she would like to be a butterfly.
In 2002, she lost her life to cancer, but as you read on, you'll see that she is still with our family.
It all started with my other sister, Heather. About a month after Kim's passing, she started having dreams of butterflies every night. She could not understand what they meant. But she would dream that she and her son would be covered with butterflies. Heather gave a lot of thought to what the dreams meant and remembered the conversation she had with Kim before she passed. She came to a conclusion that this was Kim telling her she is okay.
One time Heather went to visit Kim's grave and an orange butterfly landed on the baby seat handle, sat there for a minute then flew away. Kim had two young daughters, and one day they were in Heather's car. Heather was telling them of the butterfly story and when they came to a stop, an orange butterfly landed on the car antenna.
I had told my wife about this butterfly story and she brushed it off, as she is very skeptical. The next day we were working on the yard and a butterfly fluttered by. I said, "Look, hun, there is Kim." My wife said, "That is not Kim.
I'm waiting for an orange one to know it's Kim."
The next day, my wife and I went for a motorcycle ride and I stopped to show my wife an old house that was vacant. My wife said in a very slow, shocked voice, "There is an orange butterfly on the back of your helmet!" I still had my helmet on and I believe that this was my sister's way of showing herself only to my wife.
I told this story to my cousin's wife, and not two minutes after I told her the stories, she got an e-mail from her sister, and on the background was an orange butterfly.
The last example: Kim's youngest daughter plays soccer. At every game, an orange butterfly can be spotted fluttering over the field.
Very cool thing to know that she is still with us, watching over us.
