P04 05

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.