Peace

As a young child, my maternal grandmother would babysit my sister and I during the day while our mom worked. Grandma also watched over several other children. Two of the children were brother and sister. I'll call the girl "Summer" to protect anonymity. All of the children that grandma watched were quite close because we saw each other almost every day of the year for nearly eight years. We played together, got in trouble together, agreed and disagreed; we were typical kids and I considered all of them family. I always felt closest to "Summer", probably because she was closest to my own age.

One Memorial Day when I was about twelve, we received a phone call from "Summer's" parents. They had been on a family vacation and "Summer" had drowned in a lake. I took the news quite badly. The night before her funeral, I had a horrible dream. I remember the dream was very realistic, yet very surreal, and to me that usually means that particular dream has some special meaning. Colors are very vivid, lights are very bright, and I can interact with the people in those kind of dreams. In this particular dream, it started out as a normal summer day would have been. We were all laughing and playing when grandma called us all in to have lunch. The sun was shining brightly. As grandma called for us, I ran for the door and it felt as if my feet were actually on the ground. Now we were all in the house at the table having lunch. Suddenly, the surroundings got dark and I looked up at "Summer". She was not laughing any more. She became distraught and started sobbing. I tried to console her, but to no avail. She started to rub her eyes and pointing to them. I noticed that where her eyes had been were now black empty spaces. I do not mean to make it sound gruesome, because it was not. It was more symbolic. She kept telling me that she could not see anymore. She was blind. Disturbed, I awoke and did not sleep any more that night. Some time had passed after her funeral when I learned that her parents had donated her corneas to an eye bank. I felt so bad for her. She was more upset about losing her eyes than losing her life. I had always looked upon this experience as recognitive. I met a professor in college with an interest in metaphysics. When I related this story to her, she suggested that she believed this "dream" was actually an astral projection. She believed that because of my closeness with "Summer", she was able to cause me to join her on another plane.

"Summer" never contacted me again and I am no longer in contact with her family. I never told her brother or parents my (our) story. I just hope that everyone has found their peace.