I watched my friend die today.*****update*****

I'm heartbroken.

6 years ago I took a job away from friends and family. I came several hours away from everyone and everything I'd ever known.

I set up home in a new place not knowing a soul. I came for work. I just couldn't find anything where I was.

This man worked at the new place. 25 years older than me. Immediately we became friends. We laughed, we drank, we ate together. He is married and welcomed me into his family. I spent many nights at his home with his wife. Spent every Father's Day with him.

Not a holiday that passed did he not invite me over, knowing I'd be sitting home.

He was my friend. My true friend.

On Saturday he was put in ICU for organ failure. Yesterday his heart stopped. He had brain damage because of it. Today, his wife asked me to be there while they pulled the plug.

What a heart wrenching thing to witness.

My heart is in shambles.

Please pray for Merrill (Chico)

I loved that man and my heart is broken.

Thank you GLP.

Not exactly like this, but subtle signs from my loved ones. Awesome update. Thanks so much for sharing.

Anything happen to any of you like this?

I was camping with a group of friends.

One of the gal's husband had died a few months earlier.

A few of us started talking about him at one point, and someone made the comment that the man was surely in Heaven.

It wasn't a minute later that a Monarch butterfly flew in and started fluttering around the woman. She held out her finger and the butterfly landed for almost a mintue. A couple of folks even got pics of it.

God has an innumerable number of ways to show folks the He is real.

MANY refuse to notice nor equate little things that have His Fingerprints ALL over them.

I was at Valley Forge Park on my lunch break, taking pictures as I normally do. I was walking around to the passenger's side of my car when suddenly a monarch butterfly appeared. Not just a "normal" butterfly fluttering by, this one kept flying around my head and kept trying to land on me. My camera was just inches away, on the seat, and the door was already open. It took me just a split second to reach in and grab it, as I straightened back up, it was gone! It had vanished!

This same week, my mother in law was in the hospital, she was having a bad reaction to her first chemo treatment. She was recovering well enough to be released in a couple of days, but suddenly, she went septic, and after a few days, we had to pull the plug.

This butterfly event was absolutely no coincidence.

For her service I did a video of her life in pictures to Willie Nelson's "Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground" and told (in the eulogy of the butterfly that came to visit before her death)

Her sister, who traveled back to her home in New Mexico after the funeral called me right after she arrived. She said when she walked to her front door there were 2 butterflies waiting for her. She opened her door and the butterflies flew inside of her house. She still to this day smiles and knows whenever she sees a butterfly.

I'm heartbroken.

6 years ago I took a job away from friends and family. I came several hours away from everyone and everything I'd ever known.

I set up home in a new place not knowing a soul. I came for work. I just couldn't find anything where I was.

This man worked at the new place. 25 years older than me. Immediately we became friends. We laughed, we drank, we ate together. He is married and welcomed me into his family. I spent many nights at his home with his wife. Spent every Father's Day with him.

Not a holiday that passed did he not invite me over, knowing I'd be sitting home.

He was my friend. My true friend.

On Saturday he was put in ICU for organ failure. Yesterday his heart stopped. He had brain damage because of it. Today, his wife asked me to be there while they pulled the plug.

What a heart wrenching thing to witness.

My heart is in shambles.

Please pray for Merrill (Chico)

I loved that man and my heart is broken.

Thank you GLP.


****UPDATE******10/4/2018

So, I made this thread almost a year ago when my best friend died. It's been a long year without him and I've missed him terribly.
Many nights I just cried, unable to accept his loss.

Things had been fine and I felt like I was moving on.Yet
unable to discuss his passing openly though, without choking up. Moving along, none the less.

That was until about two weeks ago. It was about a week before my birthday. I had gone to bed for the night. I felt an overwhelming loss for him and cried. Saying out loud how much I miss him.

The next day at work, a butterfly landed on my shoe. The next few days I came into contact with 5 butterflies. Either landing on me or within my reach. It was now my birthday and I'm at my daughters house. We're sitting outside talking and another butterfly lands between us on the table. I tell her that's 5 butterflies that have come close to me in only a few days.
She asked who had passed I had been thinking about. I tell her I cried a few days ago because I missed Chico.
She tells me not to worry, Chico is trying to tell me with the butterflies, he was close by.
I didn't think much about what she said, but it was nice to hear anyway.

This is the part that really hit home though...

Chico and I worked together. Every year in October our company sponsored a charity golf tournament. This was his highlight. He lived for this tournament and looked forward to it every year. He and I would do it together. Always a big deal for him.

So here it was a week after my butterfly stuff and the tournament is here. I'm dreading it. I don't want to do it without him. This was HIS event.
So, I decided on a whim to buy an extra ticket for his wife to go since this event meant so much to him.
She was delighted to go. She knew he loved it too.

There were probably 300+ people there. As soon as she sat next to me she said "I know Chico is here, he would never miss this". I agreed.
During the dinner they were passing out 50/50 cash tickets. For $20 you got 30 tickets all different numbers. They pull your ticket number, you win.

Don't you know, they call the number and Chico's sweet wife won! I jump up and yell, thank you, Chico!

She collects her cash and is crying saying she knew Chico made that happen.

We go home and a few hours later I get a call from her crying again. I asked what was wrong, through tears she told me, the ticket number she won with, was Chico's exact birthdate.

My Dear friend Chico, is trying very hard it seems, to let's us know he loves us and has not really left us. My friend Chico, I can't wait to see you again

Anybody have a similar experience?

Yw

My god....what a bitter sweet story! I laughed and I cried! Thank you for sharing!!!

Thank you for sharing these stories. I believe our loved ones reach out in these ways when we need it most. Sometimes you just need to be quiet and calm enough to recognize these signs.

My mother passed away from cancer a year after I was married. She never met my children, her beautiful grandsons. The dates my children were born are odd; one was born one day after her birthday & the second one day after the date she passed.

When I was pregnant with my first son, I had no idea we were having a boy. I was about 5 mos pregnant and walking with my husband along an empty beach in September. We saw a shiny object in the waves ahead of us. A mylar balloon way washing up in the waves. My husband grabbed it from the waves, it was a blue balloon with the words “It’s A Boy”. It was extremely difficult to be pregnant, excited about being a new mom and not have my wonderful mom to share this time with me. There were other times, mainly with music and songs coming on that had a special meaning with her.

In the past 20 years since she passed, I feel blessed to have felt her presence. I am glad you have been blessed with so many awesome signs from your dear friend.

MANY refuse to notice nor equate little things that have His Fingerprints ALL over them.

Your eyes deceived you. You were watching your friend being born.

Think back to when you were born. Don't remember? Yes, we were happy in our mothers womb and then an hour or more later, we are born into a new world that we didn't know existed. The same happens when we die. We are birthed into our next stage. None of us really know what the next step is, but most believe there is another world.

It was the Living God Jesus Christ comforting you and her.

Thank you all for your kind words.
My prayers are lifted for the others suffering the grief from a lost loved one.
It's a very difficult place to be.
Today I spent with the wife. Trying to get papers in order, funeral home etc..

I've been too busy to feel much today.

As I relax, I expect it to settle back into my mind again.

Thank you all again, for your kindness.

A friend is being buried today, and I am not there. The funeral is in another state, so I am staying behind to cat-sit so his wife can do what she needs to do. Spent some time just sitting with his cats on his bed, petting them for him.