One example was when I stopped by to Walla Walla to a find cemetery that some ancestors were buried at after I finished a job in Yakima for business. Walla Walla was about 300 miles from where I lived and rarely traveled to the Eastern half of Washington before. My map of the area was in the truck of my car. (maps were the only option at that time, long before the technology of today!) and I was a bit delayed before heading out. My annoyance about my delay evaporated when I came upon a backup that was caused by a truck that had recently tipped over and dumped potato’s all over the freeway. I felt fortunate that my delay prevented me from being in the middle of the accident when it happened. There didn’t appear to be injuries and the mashed potholes all over the road what quite a sight!
Along with my gifts of empathetic energy, I also inherited some psychic gifts from a maternal 2nd great-grandmother. The majority of the time there was little, or no reaction from my family members. I never realized some of my observations or comments were out of the ordinary except for a few occasions when family or friends would say with wide eyed alarm & exasperation, “TERI!!! You’re FREAKING me out!!” Which was always a shock to me because I never knew what I’d said that had unnerved folks. Thankfully my mother didn’t belittle, nor make a big deal of my psychic gifts. But that my insights were a gift that was inherited from her dear Great Grandmother. The biggest problem I had while growing up was that I was often teased by my dad & brothers for being “too sensitive” .
Walla Walla was about 130 miles from Yakima and I was surprised to see that there were 4 exits to chose from off the freeway. So, I did my best to “tune in” to chose one of them. Rather than continue the task of tuning in, I decided to pull to the side of the road I’d chosen to retrieve the map from the trunk of my car. Then was pleasantly surprised to see that the exit from the Freeway had brought me the street that led right up to the cemetery entrance before curving to the left to continue on.
No one was working at the little cemetery office. So, I got back in my car, dropped the top of my convertible to get a better view to tune in to find her grave by simply driving and or walking around. I was happy, but not too surprised when I found her gravesite within 15 minutes. Tears came to my eyes as I stood in front of her grave when I distinctly heard her voice say, “I know the loss of a child.” Before I found her gravesite I had often wondered why she was buried nearly 300 miles away from Olympia where she and her husband had died and where here oldest son’s family had remained. But when I saw the gravesites of her two daughters next to she and her husband’s gravestones, it made perfect sense after all.
I left the gravesite to buy some cleaning supplies and some flowers, then returned to clean her gravestone. I couldn’t help but to smile about her birthdate carved upon the stone. Like so many other woman of her generation, she lied about her age to hide the fact that she was older than her husband. It was bittersweet as I left that day. So uplifted by the experience, wondering if I truly heard her voice for real and grateful that she had passed her psychic abilities on to me! Her presence was so loving and wonderful while I was there.
Several years later I met a cousin and his wife to share photos after he found his ancestors on my family tree on Ancestry.com. I had accidentally listed his ancestor as a half brother to my Great Grandmother and was thrilled that he had more information about that side of the family. The cousin’s family was raised in Olympia, WA and mine was raised in the Seattle area many miles away. Both families had lost touch with one another as generations passed by. It was great to share some correspondence that I found between my grandmother and my cousin’s mother which proved that the loss of contact had not been due to estrangement. My second great grandmother became a single working mother of two teens when my great grandpa caught TB and was confined to a TB Isolation Center. The combination of raising her family and living over 60 miles away left little time for visits.
A couple of years after meeting them to share photos I met them in Walla Walla where they had been vacationing to I showed them where our Ancestor’s burial location was and also , we figure out where our Great Grandpa was buried in that cemetery too. (they had divorced.)
I was great to see that someone was working in an office this time and they gave us a list of names which had the basic sections where our ancestors were located, but the grave locations were hard to decipher So we drove over to the section indicated and walked the rows of graves to try to find the headstone. After awhile we gave up and my cousin’s wife and I decided to wait while he went back to his truck to go back to the cemetery office for more help. My little red sports car was parked in front of his truck, so he backed up his truck until it reached the nearest cemetery road, then turned around and headed to the office. When he came back his wife and I noticed that he seemed a bit shook up as he verified the location of where surrounding graves were. Then he turned to look at me where I was standing and said, “OK, so there’s your car right there. You didn’t realize it, but when you drove to this section to park your car, you parked it right next to our great-grandfather’s family plot. And I’m really trying not to be really freaked out because right now you are standing on the of our 2nd great-grandfather’s grave! The family plot of graves was unmarked, so there was no way of knowing that our 3rd Great Grandparents and 3 of their sons, including our 2nd Great Grandpa was buried there. Then he said, “plus, you found our 2nd great-grandmother’s grave by simply driving and walking a little in a Cemetery that has 35,000 burials here!” Then he repeated the phase I had heard so often before: “Cousin, you’re freaking me out!!”
I have to say I was amazed too !! When I was younger, I didn’t know how to filter my experiences, and I couldn’t tell the people on this side of the veil of verses from those who left. I thought everyone could see what I did. I am forever grateful to a dear woman who taught me how to filter my empathic abilities so that I could tune in when I chose to rather than be blindsided by those who wanted help from the other side. I am here to learn the life lessons too and am no different that others who struggle along this often challenging side of the veil.
My second great-grandmother used her psychic abilities for several years to help Walla Walla police detectives solve crimes in the 1920’s. In the 1920’s Walla Walla had a greater population than Seattle did. Years later I was thrilled to find a news article about an unsolved murder that she helped to solve by using her ability to tune into the energy left behind on a murder victim’s eye glasses. I have heard that my 2nd Great Grandmother was a humble woman with a wonderful sense of humor. But she refused to do readings for members of her immediate family. She and I both suffered profound losses during our lives and I sometimes wonder if tragedy contributes to these types of gifts? When I found her listed in the 1920 census, instead of listing her profession as a housewife or housekeeper as many women of her generation did. My second great-grandmother listed her profession as “Divine Healer” !! How amazing is that???
dancindragonfly 