Fine Feathered Friends

Tags

birds, doves, postaday, postaweek2013, sparrows, wildlife

Here’s wishing you all a lovely rest of the week filled with the sweet
songs of the birdies summoning warm Spring breezes & sunny days.

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Mysterious Monday

Tags

batteries, curiocabinet, doves, figurines, grandma, grandpa, misc, musing, paranormal, postaday, postaweek2012

This post is a bit different than what I normally post on this blog.  The story and subject matter is close to my heart on a spiritual level.  It’s my true story of a mysterious thing that happened this morning. If you don’t believe in the paranormal, it’s okay, but you may want to skip reading this.

If you have time and want to read my ramblings, then grab a cup of coffee, tea or your choice of beverage and get comfortable because this is a long post. It spans a decade involving a few events that all came together this Monday morning about 5 am.

I’m not sure where to begin this story. I guess it really starts back about a decade ago when we went to my husband’s Grandmother’s 90th birthday party. My husband was undecided as to what gift to give to Grandma. She had  so many things collected already from her almost century of life. What would a lady of her years possibly need or like?  We strolled through a department store and nothing really jumped out at us that we thought she would like. Finally we had reached the back of the store still lost for a gift idea.  As were walking through the home furnishings, it occurred to me that Grandma has many figurines and perhaps she would like a curio cabinet. They had a small one with a glass door.  It was one that could be mounted on a wall. I showed it to my husband and he liked the idea. So we bought it, a gift bag to put it in, a bow and card.  The closer we got to the party, we kind of worried because we knew our gift would be different from most gifts she would get. Happily Grandma was delighted.  She was literally tickled pink with the curio cabinet. She gave us big hugs and sweet thanks with great smiles of joy.

Some years later, we were visiting with Grandma at my husband’s Mother’s home.  Grandma got me off to the side and told me that she wanted me to have the curio cabinet when she passed away. Thoughts of her passing was very saddening, but I said okay.
Grandma put her soft small hand on my arm and said, “When I say I want you to have it, I mean everything in it. ”  I said okay and thanked her and gave her a hug.
Shortly there after, we carried Grandma home. The curio was on her living-room wall and it was filled with figurines & angels. Grandma told me, “I want you to have all these and the cabinet.”
I asked her if she was sure because she has so many grandchildren & great grandchildren that I thought she may want to leave the figurines to them.  She assured me that she wanted me to have them.

Fast-forward to a couple years ago. I was vacuuming my home and found a pack of size 312 batteries. They were on the floor of my grandson’s room. I thought it was odd because he hadn’t been at our house for a few weeks. I knew I had vacuumed that room since then and they were not there before.

We didn’t have anything in the house that took such a small battery. There was a couple missing from the pack.  I put them up thinking maybe that my grandson had left them here. When he came for a visit that afternoon, I showed him the batteries and ask him if they were his. He said he had never seen them before.

The batteries were an odd find. My husband and I could not figure out where they came from. Last summer, my sister and brother-in-law came for a visit. They have all kinds of cool gadgets: GPS, cell phones, ipods and such as that. I went and got the pack of  312 batteries and asked them if they could use them in any of their gadgets. I was going to give the batteries to them. They both said no. They didn’t have anything that used that small of a battery. So I put the batteries back up.

A couple weeks ago, after the last few years of suffering with Alzheimer’s and several other health problems, Grandma passed away. Unfortunately, I had a  stomach virus and couldn’t attend Grandma’s funeral. I was so sad and upset about it. My husband assured me that everyone would understand.  He made the long journey alone.  Bless his heart.  While he was there, his Mama gave him the curio and its contents to bring to me.

I cried when I saw it. My mother-in-law had wrapped each figurine individually in paper towels. Carefully, I unwrapped each wonderful one of them.  I wish I knew the stories behind the lovely treasures.  Knowing Grandma wanted me to have them meant the world to me and made them all the more special.

My favorite trinket was what once upon a time had been the top to a music box, it has a beautiful picture of Shirley Temple on it. My Mother loved Shirley Temple and my Mom was born on her birthday. So Shirley Temple has always been a special part of our life. Mama and Grandma were both sweet natured and everybody loved them. Thinking about them both made the Shirley Temple lid extra special to me.

In the collection of curio trinkets and figurines are two pretty plastic doves.  They have a place on the bottom of them to open up for a battery and speaker like holes. I could shake them and they had a rattle, but made no sounds. I figured their battery had long since died. It didn’t occur to me to open them and check and see what size batteries they took. I just set them up and left them alone to be pretty like a figurine.

For Christmas we had bought Baby-cat a small stuffy bird that chirps when it’s touched. We get so tickled when we hear it because we know Baby-cat is playing with it. I wondered if Grandma’s plastic doves may have made a similar sound. It was in the back of my mind, but I pretty much forgot about it.

This morning, as I was waking up, for some curious reason, Grandma’s doves popped into my head. I lay there and wondered  what type of sound they made… Did they chirp like Baby-cat’s toy or play music or what…
And then in my wakeful dream state, it was like I heard Grandma saying, “Why don’t you find out, Grandpa got you the batteries over a year ago.”
Well that woke me up. I lay there and tried to figure out what she meant. Grandpa had passed away  a couple of decades ago.  I didn’t recall him ever giving us batteries. After a few minutes, the mental image of the pack of 312 batteries popped into my mind and I wonder…hmmm… Was it possible that they would fit in the Doves?

I got out of bed and went and got the doves. I could hear my husband taking a shower as I walked to our utility room. I got the batteries and laid them on our washer. I got a Phillips screwdriver and opened the back of one of the doves.  It had two tiny batteries and they sure looked like the 312′s. It took a little bit of force but I popped the tiny batteries out of the dove. I took one of the 312′s and measured it next to the old battery. It was the same. Wow! I couldn’t believe it. I put 2 new batteries in the bird and it immediately began to sing. I laughed and then replaced the batteries in the other bird. Both birds sings so pretty.

I was so fascinated with the event that I couldn’t wait for my husband to get out of the shower to show him.  I carried them in the bathroom where my husband was still in the shower. He heard the chirping birds and thought I had Baby-cat’s toy bird. He opened the shower curtain and I showed him the doves and told him about my waking-dream of Grandma telling me about Grandpa already bringing me the batteries over a year before. He said, “Well, I’ll be, Isn’t that something?” We both got a good chuckle out of it.  I left him to finish his shower.

My husband’s like me and believes that from time-to-time our deceased relatives may check in on us.  We don’t know where the batteries came from, and we never knew about the doves before Grandma passed away, then we can only figure that perhaps Grandpa did have something to so with the batteries showing up because he knew we would need them for the doves and then Grandma told me to use them.  Or it’s all bizarre coincidence that was one of life’s little bits of fun. Either way I think it’s just cool and so does my husband.

And so ends my curious tale. It was a strange way to wake up at 5am this Monday morning, but rather nice too. Grandma and I shared a few conversations about the afterlife and paranormal things over the 3 decades that I knew her. Perhaps this was her way of contacting me to let me know, what we always believed: life does go on and our passed love ones still visit from time-to-time.

Have you ever had something like this happen?

Wishing you all a week of wonder and happy times.