I am a strong believer in signs.  I know that if you open your heart to it, Spirit will speak to you in all sorts of ways.  For me, a rose has always been a sign from a loved one who has passed.  I wrote about it in a post called The Rose.

Earlier this week, my Aunt Mary, who I loved dearly, left this physical world after a rapid decline over a few days.  Her death was quite and peaceful quite the opposite of the sparkly-life-of-the-party-girl she was all of her life.

That’s Aunt Mary on the left with her best friend Marge.  She had Marge were BFF’s for 70 plus years.

Wednesday, we went to her house to look for some things we needed for the wake.  The funeral director asked if my aunt had the crucifix from her brother’s wake.  She thought we might want to use it again.  So there we were, hunting through piles of stuff that Aunt Mary had accumulated over the years.  She was on the verge of becoming a hoarder.  Boxes and bags full of all sorts of things everywhere.  I was searching in her old bedroom (she had stopped sleeping in that bed a few years ago because it was too high for her to climb into) opening closets,  checking in night stands, digging in bags.  I made my way around to the far side of the bed, climbing over all sorts of obstacles, to a chest of drawers.  I had to move more boxes to open the top drawer.  I moved the contents of the drawer around and in the back saw a round, grey box that looked out of place.  I took it out and opened it.  Inside was a beautiful crystal rose.  Now that’s my Aunt Mary, sparkly all the way.