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My Brother Joey, the Angel

Toni DiBernardo-Jones

Pennsylvania

My mother was a wonderful mother, daughter, sister, and grandmother. She had a way about her, and she would help anyone she could anytime that she could. She loved her family and most of all her grandchildren. She was the type of person who knew what she wanted and got it. Until the last six weeks of her life she was an independent, active person constantly running here and there; she always loved taking long rides in the car.

The last trip that she made was up to her daughter Mary Jo's house. She always wanted to see her two youngest grandchildren, Brianna and Michael. These two young babies were the light of her life and really kept her going.

Brianna is the only girl among all the boys in the family. She would always be happy to see her Grandma. There have been times since my mother's death that Brianna has said that she saw her Grandma Yooie and has even carried on conversations with her.

In fact, Brianna, who was just three-years-old at the time, would always ask my sister why she couldn't see my mother. At one point, she was pretending to talk on a toy telephone with her grandmother when she turned to Mary Jo and told her “Grandma wants to speak to you now.” Unfortunately, this scared my sister, and she threw away the play phone.

If there was some way for my mother to still see these children from beyond, I know she would. She would always say that Brianna melted her heart and that she held a very special place in it just for her.

During her last trip to Mary Jo's, she fell down going into the house. My sister and I had to take her home and bring her upstairs into her bedroom; she never left home or came back down from her bedroom again. This was a very sad time for us; it's hard to see someone who was so full of life and spunk not able to do the things she had always loved to do. She would, at times, put on her makeup and say she was going to see the kids, but she just couldn't do it anymore.

The week that my mother died, I had experiences that were just unbelievable as she was communicating with my father and brother Joey who had already passed. One day my mother looked at me and told me that my brother Joey was in the room with us. She said, “Oh, I wish that you could see this beautiful male angel all dressed in white. I'm afraid if you turn your head too fast, he will leave; he is so beautiful.”

She went on as if she were having a conversation with this angel. “Did you hear what he just told me?” she asked. Then without waiting for an answer she continued, “I told him to please put me down because I was going to make him fall and he told me, ‘Mom, I won't let you fall. You are as light as these feathers on my back.'” I couldn't believe what I was hearing. She then looked at me and said, “Toni, it's Joey; I always knew he was an angel.” (My brother passed away when he was just twelve years old.) You could actually feel the energy in the bedroom that day.

Later that day as I continued to sit there, I felt a cool breeze brush up against my cheek. I just knew that it was my beloved father. My mother confirmed this, “Toni, your father just kissed you on the cheek and told me to tell you that he never forgot how you took care of him.” I was totally amazed because these were the same words my father had said to me just minutes before he died some twenty years earlier. My father and I were alone in the room when he told me he would never forget how I took care of him and that he would love me forever.

This was a validation of what I already knew. We do not lose our loved ones. This was an experience that I will never forget—a very special memory that I will cherish and carry in my heart for the rest of my life. I am so very happy to have been there with my best friend, my very loving mother. I'll love you and miss you forever, Mom.

I firmly believe that all of the signs my mother and I experienced were due in large part to the power of prayer. I have a strong devotion to Jesus, and I would say the chaplet daily. One day, I was astounded by what happened to my rosaries. After much prayer using these rosaries, the cross turned gold. It was just another beautiful sign from above.