My sister died four years ago. It still seems strange to have a sibling pass away at the relatively young age of 56 and stranger that so much time has transpired since she passed. Nothing can really ever prepare a person for losing a sibling and it is inevitable that it becomes the compass towards facing one’s own mortality. We are all going to live forever, we presume, until we are faced with the fleeting nature of our existence. That is unless we come to understand that we truly never die; instead, we transform back to our original essence. And isn’t this the ultimate lesson of living—understanding that we are so much more than this earthly vessel we call our body and mind. We are spirit and we are timeless.
Our bodies and minds are simply the container that allows each of us to experience “time and space.” Near the end of my sister’s life, I got to witness this firsthand. She had been in hospice for more than two years (my sister was incredibly stubborn with a will that baffled the doctors) and each of the subsequent times when I visited her, I could sense that she would often be distracted by things that only she could see. Her gaze would avert over her shoulder and she would have conversations with spiritual entities that most people couldn’t see. This was something that I shared with my sister and she would quiz me from time to time to see if I could tap into the spiritual beings that were present.
“How many are here with us now?” she asked me on one occasion.
“Four,” I responded.
She nodded her head, “You really can feel them.” I nodded in respond.
My sister and I were never really close, mostly because we had an 8-year age gap that separated us. When we were growing up 8 years was substantial. She was in high school when I was making my way through elementary school and when we entered adulthood, she had kids as I was just beginning my career in comedy. Add to it that we lived more than 1,000 miles away from each other and it wasn’t hard to see that we just never synced up.
When I discovered that she had a “time stamp” on her life (incidentally, we all do we just don’t live like we are dying) I knew that it was important for me to return to my hometown to spend some time with her. The first time I entered her hospice room it felt strange. It was peculiar to see how much she had aged and how her health had deteriorated since the last time I saw her. Her feisty attitude was still intact, but her physical vessel was showing all the signs that her time on earth was precious and limited.
I have always known that we don’t die. We transform back to our original truth. Normally, I wouldn’t broach this discussion with anyone, but knowing my sister’s circumstances I decided it was time to have a conversation with her regarding the end of her life. We were alone in her room at the time while the rest of the family was sharing a meal and it felt appropriate to ask my sister a question that had been on my mind.
“You know that you’re not really going to die, correct?’
She stared back at me. She didn’t affirm it—she didn’t deny it.
“You and I will be able to communicate long after you have left your body, if you actually go before I do,” I said to her. “I would like for us to have a sign so that I will know you are with me if, in fact, you leave this plane before I do. What would you like it to be?” I asked.
My sister paused for a moment and then I saw her eyes light up.
“The Pink Panther. When you see the Pink Panther, you will know it is me.”
Why she chose this I really don’t know. To me, it didn’t matter. This was the sign she chose, and this became our sign together. I spoke a lot with my sister in those remaining months of her life. She asked me if I could be there for her two boys when she was gone. They were very young, and they were going to need guidance. Her husband had passed away only three years earlier, five days after my father died (both died in the same hospital, three rooms away from each other). We had lost three members of our family within a very short time span. My nephews (my sister’s boys) lost their father, mother and grandfather in three short years.
I assured my sister that the entire family would be there for her boys. In one of my final moments with my sister, she looked me deeply in the eye and said, “I forgive you.” I responded, “Thank you.” I’m not entirely sure what I did to earn her condemnation, but I accepted the forgiveness, nonetheless. It was in this moment that I thought, “Don’t ever hang on to anger. The people we are angry with most likely have no idea that we are even mad at them.”
My sister passed away July 26, 2017. Her oldest son and my sister were by her side right before she passed away. They stepped out of the room for a moment and when they returned, she was gone. My surviving sister told me that right before she passed it was obvious that she was connected to the spirit realm.
Soon after she was gone the Pink Panther began making an appearance. I would ask my sister to reveal herself and the Pink Panther would show up in the unlikeliest of places. Decaled on a car, on insulation of new buildings, painted on walls, on baseball caps and various other places. I shared the Pink Panther with the family and soon I would begin getting text messages with pictures of the Pink Panther.
If I needed guidance, I would ask my sister to give me a hint as to what to do and voila! The Pink Panther would arrive. Without fail, whenever I would see the Pink Panther, I would be guided perfectly on the next step of my journey. In a strange way, I felt closer to my sister after she had passed than when she was alive. I could and do still feel her presence with me all the time.
I check in regularly with my sister’s youngest son. Whenever we see the Pink Panther, we pass the message along to one another. “Lori D. has made an appearance,” we say. Although she is gone, she is with me, guiding me as a trusted “eye in the sky.”
I said to her recently, “Costa Rica is calling…whatever shall I do?”
To hear David narrate this blog click the link below to listen on Spotify!
Lisa,
So pleased to hear that in some small way I was able to bring you some comfort. One of the greatest truths that has been kept from much of the world is that we never die; we are eternal spirit expressing ourselves through a physical body. My friend, and your father, is simply the Universe expressing Itself through the personality that we call “Dad” or in my case by his given name. We will always have access to his essential nature no matter the state of his physical body. He is with us eternally.
Stay incredibly blessed on your journey. You are loved always and forever.
David
Thank you, David. I truly needed to read this today. Think I may need to find my Pink Panther. There are days the fear surrounds my heart. This gave me light.