Read Our Story

This website reads like a book, illustrated with pictures, videos and little anecdotes. You can read the story from start to finish by clicking the chapters in order, or click anywhere you want to go
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Introduction
 
 
 
 

Chapter 44 – Driver Dream

For two days after Gabby passed, I thought a lot about what happens to dogs in the afterlife. Do they find their way to Heaven on their own?  Would someone like Gram be there to help her over, as people often recount in near-death experiences or deathbed visions, seeing loved ones who have passed on before them helping them with the transition?  Do they go to the rainbow bridge and wait for us there, as told in the popular story?  I just wanted her to be safe until I could be with her again. (More on that in the “Heavenly Reunions?” chapter.) 
 
I had always figured she would go to Heaven and stay with Gram until I got there. A few days after she passed, someone made the comment (well-meaning, I am sure) that her spirit would stay with me until she thought it was time for her to move on to new people and new adventures. I did not like this idea at all. Not my Gabby, no way she would ever want to be with someone else!  I quickly put it out of my mind.  If there is an afterlife, I wanted us to be together in it, and I was sure that was what she would want, too.

The dream

Two days later I had a dream that felt incredibly realistic. There were no fantasy or nonsense elements in it at all, and I felt like I was actually there participating in it, with all my faculties intact. Though I was participating in the dream, I also had the sense a curtain was pulled back so I could see things transpiring that are normally hidden.

In the dream I was in my living room.  It was daytime, and the room was accurate to the last detail. Someone was at the door. I did not hear a knock or a ring, I just knew someone was there.  I walked to the door and opened it.

I opened the door and a nice man in a blue-gray suit and tie was there. When we made eye contact he broke into a big, broad smile. I felt comfortable in his presence, and I immediately and instinctively knew four things about him:

1) He was absolutely benevolent.

2) He wasn’t from around here.

3) He was a driver, courier or escort of some kind.

4) He was there to do a job.

As he smiled, he turned his head and looked down into my driveway. (My front door entry is above and to the left of my driveway.) 

carindream(1)

My dad’s white car is parked in the same place as the silver car in my dream

Following his glance, I looked down and saw an unfamiliar silver car parked in my driveway.  Gabby was sitting in the front passenger seat, intensely looking up at me through the windshield.  She had a furrowed brow and the separation anxiety look on her face… big time.

The driver looked amused, with something of a sheepish grin.  I got the impression he had just lost an argument, but thought it was all very funny at the same time. He turned to me and said in a warm voice, with just a hint of bemusement in it…

“She’s waiting for you.”

Then I woke up.

My interpretation

First of all, when the driver said, “She’s waiting for you” the emphasis and inflection of his voice was such that he was trying to tell me that she wasn’t willing to leave with him until I could go with her.

What took place in the dream, and the message I received from it, was clear from the moment I first woke up. The man was some kind of spiritual escort, guide, angel, whatever you want to call it, and he was sent to bring her to Heaven. However, she wanted to wait until I could go with her before she would leave, and there was no changing her mind.  THAT was my Gabby, the Gabby I knew!  Wiener dogs can be very stubborn and tend to get their way. If you have or know one, you know what I am talking about!

Something else I realized was that the man in the suit was doing me a favor by showing me this and delivering the message. Even if he was there for Gabby, he was absolutely on my side… a force for good.

I thought about the dream and if there was any possible truth to it. Assuming it was true, I could easily live another 30 years, and I would not want her waiting in my driveway that long. But they say there is no time in Eternity, so 30 years here could seem like a minute there and not a problem.  I recounted the story to my friend Lance and he thought the same thing. Before I could discuss the time factor of the dream he said, “Spiritual time is different from material time. What is 30 years here could be seconds there.”

My subconscious or something more?  No one can say for sure, but I don’t think my brain works well enough to cook up something so meaningful and relevant on its own. I have chosen to take this one at face value and look at it as a blessing that has helped bring me some peace, and reinforce what an incredibly strong bond Gabby and I shared and how much we loved each other. I told my mom about it and knowing me and Gabby both, she laughed and said, “She would wait as long as it takes!”  

Either waiting for me in the driveway or playing in Heaven’s green grass with Gram, I have faith that one day we will be reunited and I’ll be seeing her again.  Who knows, maybe we will be reunited in a spiritual silver car! 

Nancy and the man in the mirror

I recounted the story to my friend Nancy, who works at Grande Italian Restaurant, which you will read about in chapter 46. I told her my interpretation, and she nodded her head in agreement. What she then told me really got my attention.

“I saw the angel that came to take my husband,” she said.

I remember Kim had told me her father said his angel was there to get him, minutes before he passed.  Kim didn’t see the angel, though, just her father.

“How did you see him?” I asked. I was desperate to know more, especially in light of my dream. Nancy went on to tell her story.

“My husband was dying of bone cancer. Physical contact was agonizing because the cancer had spread widely through his body and if you touched him, it would be very painful to him, even with all of the drugs he was on. We were doing hospice at home and they brought in a specially supportive bed to make lying down less painful for him. There was a large picture mirror in the living room and the bed was rolled next to it.  For days he had been telling me, “Tell that man to go away.”  I told him there was no man, and figured it was the drugs causing him to hallucinate.
“My in-laws were staying with us and everyone but my husband was in the dining room, talking. I was the only person with a view into his room.  I glanced into his room and saw the mirror. I saw a man standing there, leaning over my husband. He was young, had dark hair, and was in a dark suit. He wasn’t scary. I knew that he was good, and he was smiling as he looked down at my husband. I did not see him standing in the room, but when I looked in the mirror I saw him clearly.
“I quickly turned around, in shock and white as a sheet. My in-laws saw me and how shaken up I was. ‘What the hell happened to you, what’s wrong?’ they asked.
“I had heard that family members that died before us come for us when it is our time, so I asked them, ‘Who in the family was tall, dark, and good looking, and died young?”

“Nobody at all was the answer.  I  told them well, he’s going to be going soon because I just saw the angel that came for him. I called and told the children to come immediately and see him. He passed away 12 hours later. “

It’s quite a remarkable story.  I have found that lots of people have similar experiences that they can’t explain and which seem supernatural, but are reluctant to talk about them. Some people are willing to share them though, and I will discuss this topic in chapter 46.