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Goodbyes |
My wife, Donna, had a thing that she told me about several times. It was a recurring dream in which she was killed in an automobile accident when she was thirty five years old.
I tried to reassure her that it was only a dream and not to dwell on it. On October 5, 1983 we received a phone call at about 10:00 pm that Beverly, her older sister, had been killed in a single car accident. It still pains me to think of that night. Beverly was thirty seven years old, Donna was thirty five.
Beverly had been driving home down a country road and slipped off of the pavement. She over corrected and the shoulder was high. The car flipped over and she was ejected through the windshield. She died at the scene.
She had a large funeral and we all were having a very hard time with her loss. Then a strange thing happened a week or so after the funeral. I was awakened one morning when Donna kissed me goodbye before she left for work. She had to be there at seven thirty and I wasn't due until after noon. I had told her to wake me when she left so we could kiss goodbye and she always did that.
That morning it was her hair brushing against my face that woke me. I stretched up to kiss her and I was still a little groggy as I watched her walk up the hallway and fade around the corner. I wondered briefly why she was wearing a peasant dress to work, but quickly forgot it and thought, "Well, I've got the whole bed to myself for a couple of hours," and flopped back and stretched out.
My arm hit Donna on the hip. She was still asleep beside me. I shot up in bed, my hair standing on end and chills running down my spine.
It was 4:20 am.
"What the Hell just happened," I croaked.
Donna woke up and asked "What's the matter?"
I told her what had just occurred and she gasped, "My God, that was Beverly. She came to tell you goodbye."
I was overcome. I had never had anything like that happen to me. I didn't know what to do. Donna and Beverly's facial features were similar and in the early morning darkness and my grogginess, I didn't notice anything amiss. The kiss was just a normal "see you later" kind of kiss; nothing passionate, just sweet, and she didn't say anything.
Donna understood. She had been visited by our friend Greg, after his suicide a year or so earlier. We had all been upset over that. He was in his early twenties, a fine musician and gentle hearted guy.
She had awakened one night shortly after his demise to find him standing in a corner of the bedroom. She was startled, but he smiled at her and said, "Don't worry Donna, it's all right, I'm okay now," and then faded away.
Beverly and I had a special relationship. We met when she came to hear me play music at The Pub and we became fast friends. I sang at her wedding; I wrote a song especially for her. She introduced me to Donna Sue. She was the bridesmaid at our wedding and I don't know who was happier that day, Bev, Donna or me. She called me, "the best brother in law in the whole world," and I took that to heart. After her divorce, she and her little dog, Rattler, lived with Donna and me for six months and we all had a great time together. She named Rattler after a song I used to do: Grandpa Jones', "Ol' Rattler," a lively banjo tune.
It's been over forty years since that happened, but I still love Beverly and I still feel emotional about that kiss.
My beautiful wife Donna Sue died much too soon on December 1, 2023. I kept seeing visions of her after she died, maybe every month or so. It was usually a fleeting glance as she moved in or out of a room, but the last two times were different.
I sleep in a recliner and one night I woke up to go to the bathroom at about 4:00 in the morning. As I started to pull the blanket off of me, I allmost jumped out of the chair. Donna was staring me right in the face, smiling at me as if she had been lying right beside me under the blanket. It didn't scare me, it startled me to see her up that close, so suddenly, and she quickly faded away.
The last time I saw her was about a month after that. I was watching TV one night and something caught my eye. I looked over to see Donna standing by the bedroom door. She was looking right at me, clear as a bell, slightly smiling, and I thought she was going to say something. She opened her mouth as if to speak, but nothing came out. I wanted to say something to her, but I was dumbstruck. I couldn't think of anything to say, so we just stared at each other for about five seconds and then she disappeared around the corner.
That
was in early October, 2025 and I just somehow felt like that was
going to be last time she would appear. So far that has proved to be
true, but I miss her so much, I keep hoping to see her again. Time
will tell.