She walks into the cold hospital room where my father and I sit discussing his upcoming surgery. She smiles cheerfully as she says, “Hi, My name is Rita.” My dad stares at her as tears are already streaming down my face. Through emotional eyes my father asks, “What did you say your name was?” She smiles and again says “Rita.” As she glances at our overly emotional response to simply stating her name, my dad explains that Rita was my mother’s name. My mother who is now in heaven.
She continues walking towards my father as she asks his name and date of birth, introducing herself as the hospital dietitian. As my father states his name and birthday, she stops and says, “Oh goodness. I am not supposed to be in this room.” We’re all stunned and temporarily speechless. My dad was in fact, not her patient and not on her list of people to see. It was a mixup. She had somehow walked into the wrong room and made a mistake.
Except it wasn’t. This was no mistake. This was my mother, working through someone else to prove that she is, without a doubt, here watching over my dad and all of us. A breath of hope, a signal of love and a reminder that things will be ok.
At 12:12pm, a woman named Rita walked into my father’s hospital room, the day before his open-heart surgery, a place she wasn’t meant to be, and gave us confirmation that people show up from eternity. Proof that we are loved so limitlessly it can reach us from heaven. Validation that the support, love and comfort of those we’ve “lost” is without end.
Sometimes a sign from my mother will come and I’ll push it away with excuses or chalk it up to circumstance or coincidence. This isn’t one of them. This was felt by all three of us, including the stranger named Rita. As she left the room, she said, “I wasn’t supposed to be here, but I was supposed to be here.” And we all knew exactly what she meant. We felt it.
It was serendipitous. It was a message from heaven.
Everything we needed, exactly when we needed it.
A message from heaven.
Thanks, mom.
I was blessed to have two Moms. My “Mommy” mom and a mother in law who I always referred to as Mom ll, for 49 years. (We stayed close after her son and I divorced) The two most incredible, influential women in my life. My love for them is immeasurable.
Unexpectedly, I lost my Mommy on Sept.13,2022 @ 2:44PM. I was holding her in my arms and Dad was holding her hand when she went home. They were married for 66 years. I was just numb.
When they came to take Mom, I sat in her rocking chair on her front porch looking at blue skies. For some unexplainable reason, I told my husband I needed a rainbow.
The following morning I received a call from my former brother in law. Mom ll had passed away hours after my Mommy had. I did not see either of these coming. I could not comprehend that I had lost both Mom’s at the same time.
Again, I told my husband I needed a rainbow. I still do not know why. I searched the skies all week and there was nothing but blue with billowy white clouds.
Mom ll’a memorial was scheduled for a
week later, it was Sunday.. After we left the service, we went back to Mom’s.
When I stepped out of the car, there was the most beautiful rainbow in a clear sky over Mom’s home.
I just stood in the driveway and cried. Thankful, I now knew they were with God and were telling me they were both ok.