The Dead aren't really Dead

Welcome to my Call it Magic! Series where I share stories of miracles and magic that I experience in my day-to-day life. My life is anything but mundane and I wish to share the same magic with you. I hope you enjoy reading my stories as much as I love writing them.

I, like everybody else used to wonder about what really happens after we die, these thoughts hit me like a ton of bricks when my maternal grandmother passed away. "Nani maa" is what I called her, which means 'maternal grandmother' in Hindi. I was 18, in college, and I still remember hearing that she had succumbed to cancer. She died fairly young, in her early 60's, and everything after that phone call felt so surreal to me. We packed our bags and headed for her funeral, and I remember feeling like I was in a movie, I felt far removed from reality, like I was watching someone else's life. Everything up to that point was surreal, but I can still remember her funeral very clearly. I was standing over her glass casket, watching over her lifeless body. I couldn't believe how still and lifeless she was! Many emotions crept up inside of me, sadness, grief, anger. I think I stood there for 20 minutes just watching her, and then it happened, I suddenly felt peace. I had reached acceptance, I accepted that death is a natural part of life, that this would happen to me someday and to everyone else that I loved and that everything would still be ok. After that day, I wished her well in heaven but I didn't think a lot about her, she and I weren't very close, partly due to the physical distance between us, I lived in a different country from her but that bond wasn't there so I just forgot about her.

9 years later, I was struggling with anxiety and one night, my panic attack got so bad that I remember going to bed shaking. My whole body was trembling from the attack and I struggled to go to sleep, hours later after having a good cry, I somehow managed to go to sleep. The next morning, as I was waking up, I felt someone standing next to me, this person was gently caressing my hair, as if everything was going to be ok, I felt so much love from them even though they didn't say anything. The whole room was filled with their loving energy. As I rolled over and tried to see who it was, they disappeared, and the energy slowly faded as I came out of my sleep. I suddenly got a vision in my mind, it was my grandmother, only, she was much younger, in her 20's, and she looked so happy and peaceful, it was her. I couldn't believe what had just happened, I truly experienced a miracle. I hadn't thought about my grandmother in years! and now she had come to comfort me during a difficult period of my life. Over the next few days, I could smell roses in my house, I smelt jasmine flowers that my grandmother used to wear and incense. It's like heaven had come down to earth.