One night, I watched him walk away after the workday was over. Ray was also about the same height and build as dad. I saw him walk slowly past the ticket counter of the airline my dad had worked for. Too strange, I thought, too strange! The next several days were filled with many more gifts from God. I asked Ray what nationality he was. He told me that he was full-blooded German. Naturally, I thought, dad was German. One thing dad always asked me was what was on my mind. One day, Ray turned his head back and he looked up at me with those glasses and bangs hanging down, and he said, "what’s on your mind?" I can’t even remember how I answered him. I hadn’t heard that since dad had said it.

My dad had 5 girls and he gave each of us a nickname. Dad always called me "Bee." A co-worker started asking Ray some questions about his security codes. Ray told her he’d tell her the first letter of his code, but nothing else. Ray said, "It’s B," and he continued saying it, "B, B, B and B."

The next morning I went into work at 6:30 a.m. Ray came in and I said, "Good morning, Ray, how are you?" He replied, "Oh, I’m here." Not even realizing what I had said I told him, "Yea, you are here in body, not mind." He said to me, "No, I’m here in mind not body." He was telling me, he was confirming to me what I had begun to believe. My dad’s spirit was coming through Ray L. This rush came over my body and it went from my head to my feet. Our mind is our spirit and it was my dad’s spirit, but it was not his body.

One day in a meeting Ray told us he would be away for awhile. He told us to keep his backyard clean while he was gone. He told us several times how damn proud he was of all of us and how we were all hard workers. Dad was always telling us eight kids how proud he was of each of us. The strange part about Ray L. saying it was that he normally did not say these types of things. Several co-workers told me they noticed changes in Ray when my group was hired. They told me Ray was usually more grumpy than happy. Ray rarely smiled and never dished out any compliments. Another co-worker told me she was in the office with Ray a few weeks before I was hired. Ray was sitting at the desk and all of the sudden he looked up and said, "Who called me, who is calling my name?" My co-worker said, "Ray, nobody is calling you in here." Ray insisted, "There was a woman calling my name, she was saying, Ray, Ray." Donna again told Ray that no one had called him. Ray replied, "Oh well, it must have been my Angel."

Ray had returned from being away & was standing at the end of the ticket counter. I turned to look at him and saw that he was smiling at me. It was a smile I had seen before. Perhaps this was the most amazing thing of all that happened. I did recall that smile. I know now that I saw the face of God and my dad in that smile that day. Something just clicked when I saw him smile. Then I started to look at those big letters spelling out the name of the airline dad had worked for. I was thinking of that smile and I was remembering something else. I thought about the dream I had of dad. Then suddenly I turned and looked, about 20 yards away from where Ray stood and smiled at me, and there it was. The same exact rounded bench that dad was sitting on in my dream! Dad had come to me in a dream & now he had come to me in my life.

HOLISTIC

The Healing Sound of Music 
by Kate Mucci (c 2000)

A rousing rendition of "Oh, Susannah" has several of the residents looking up - flickers of recognition cross their faces. A few choruses of "How Great Thou Art" inspires many of them to stand and walk or wheel their chairs toward the piano. Soon several are singing along to "Amazing Grace". A few country and western tunes bring several more residents into the present, and "In the Mood" has nearly everyone dancing along. Everyone, that is, except the frail, tiny woman in the wheelchair in the corner.