I’ve had many dreams of Jeff since his death. There are a few that are terrifying renditions of the last few minutes of his life; but the vast majority centre on seeing him again in a variety of surprising locations.
I’ve found him on dairy farms slogging through the mud. I have glimpsed him on boats passing bridges that I stand upon. I have found him sitting at the dinner table expectant for his next meal.
In each one of these absurdly set dreams, he is smiling, joyful and laughing. His mirth spills from him with such force that I believe that he is alive again and this whole death business has been an unfortunate ruse.
After hugging him forcefully and smelling him deeply, I usually beat upon his chest swearing at him for inconveniencing me with having to plan a funeral and all the painful outfall from the belief that he has been dead all this time.
He never utters a word but gleefully smiles at me and holds me tight. I always seem to come away from these dreams feeling that he is “okay” and that he is happy.
These dreams shifted recently when my dream of rearranging furniture into the perfect configuration was interrupted by a dreamland telephone ringing. I was too immersed in my activity to answer it. Jeff’s good friend, Finnegan, answered, laughed and replied to the unseen person speaking, “I’ll tell her….” He turned to me and said, “Jeff asked me to tell you that he loves you the whole pie and he’s thinking of you.” Outraged that Finnegan had hung up, I flung myself at the phone fervently trying to remember Jeff’s contact number for wherever the hell he was.
I woke with my heart beating frantically and my mind attempting to grasp that telephone number to god-knows-where….As my head cleared, I realized I was looking for the number to “Heaven”….
Although I was frustrated and saddened that he was just beyond my reach, I was relieved that again, he seemed to be “here” and he was “alright”; in fact, he seemed happy.
I wonder if others have these dreams when they have lost someone so very dear to their heart? Is this my mind playing tricks in an attempt to soothe my heart? Or is Jeff reaching out to me from somewhere to let me know that he still loves me and will be with me always?