New Beginnings

It all started when my grandmother died. February 13, 1999 was the date. It was an unseasonably warm day, and I had just attended the funeral of my great uncle Lester. Our extended family had assembled for lunch at a restaurant not far from the cemetery, and after eating I went out to the car to take my dog, Phoebe, for a walk. She was just a puppy then, and I took her everywhere I went. As we walked along the sidewalk in front of the restaurant, I noticed a rather large and brightly colored butterfly fluttering along beside us. Marveling at its array of deep oranges outlined in bold black lines, I felt the richness of a profound presence in our midst. As soon as I felt the sensation of presence, this fascinating thing of absolute beauty flew two circles around me and then darted away without a trace.

I picked up my little dog and put her back in the car and went back into the restaurant to get my parents. "Mom, don't ask why, but you've got to call Grandpa right away." And that was that…Mom, Dad, Wes (my brother) and I said our goodbyes to the relatives on my Dad's side and departed to the parking lot where we called my grandfather. "Come right now. Dorothy's gasping for air."

The drive there was quiet as twenty minutes rolled into an eternity. We found a space in the parking lot outside the care center, looked at each other in silence and closed the doors. We hadn't walked ten feet when another butterfly, this one tiny and solid white encircled me and flitted away. I stopped. "She's dead." I voiced it to my dad who stood shoulder to shoulder with me. My words had barely risen into the air when Dad's cell phone rang.
"Mr. Davis?"
"Speaking."
"This is Robin from the Care Center at Claremont Manor. I'm calling to tell you that Mrs. Hancock has just expired."


Those two butterflies could well have been a coincidence in nature that I attributed spiritual presence to on my own, but I believe the Divine Spirit of Creation spoke to me intuitively. My grandmother's spirit bequeathed a love of life to me and imbued me with the responsibility to preserve and protect it and the power necessary to fulfill that responsibility.