Grief Diaries: Hello From Heaven

By Lynda Cheldelin Fell, Christine Duminiak and Mary Lee Robinson

Fascinating true stories about after-death communication and the power of love.

Grief Diaries creator Lynda Cheldelin Fell dreamed of her daughter’s death two years before it happened. When the nightmare came true in 2009, she watched her deceased grandmother guide her daughter safely to heaven. Despite the shock of her tragic

• Language: English
• Publisher: AlyBlue Media
• Release date: Jul 12, 2016
• ISBN: 9781944328405

Lynda Cheldelin Fell

LYNDA CHELDELIN FELL is an educator, speaker, author of over 30 books including the award-winning Grief Diaries, and founder of the International Grief Institute. Visit www.LyndaFell.com.

Book preview

Grief Diaries

HELLO FROM HEAVEN

Fascinating true stories about

after-death communication

and the power of love

LYNDA CHELDELIN FELL

with

CHRISTINE DUMINIAK

MARY LEE ROBINSON

FOREWORD BY CHRISTINE DUMINIAK

Founder, Prayer Wave for After-Death Communication

Author, Heaven Talks to Children

Grief Diaries

Hello From Heaven – 1st ed.

Fascinating true stories about after-death communication and the power of love.

Lynda Cheldelin Fell/Christine Duminiak/Mary Lee Robinson

Grief Diaries www.GriefDiaries.com

Cover Design by AlyBlue Media, LLC

Interior Design by AlyBlue Media LLC

Published by AlyBlue Media, LLC

Copyright © 2016 by AlyBlue Media All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, without prior written permission of the publisher.

ISBN: 978-1-944328-28-3

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016905580

AlyBlue Media, LLC

Ferndale, WA 98248

www.AlyBlueMedia.com

This book is designed to provide informative narrations to readers. It is sold with the understanding that the writers, authors or publisher is not engaged to render any type of psychological, legal, or any other kind of professional advice. The content is the sole expression and opinion of the authors and writers. No warranties or guarantees are expressed or implied by the choice to include any of the content in this book. Neither the publisher nor the author or writers shall be liable for any physical, psychological, emotional, financial, or commercial damages including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential or other damages. Our views and rights are the same: You are responsible for your own choices, actions and results.

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

GRIEF DIARIES

TESTIMONIALS

CRITICALLY IMPORTANT . . . I want to say to Lynda that what you are doing is so critically important. –DR. BERNICE A. KING, Daughter of Dr. Martin Luther King

INSPIRATIONAL . . . Grief Diaries is the result of heartfelt testimonials from a dedicated and loving group of people. By sharing their stories, the reader will find inspiration and a renewed sense of comfort as they move through their own journey. -CANDACE LIGHTNER, Founder of Mothers Against Drunk Driving

DEEPLY INTIMATE . . . Grief Diaries is a deeply intimate, authentic collection of narratives that speak to the powerful, often ambiguous, and wide spectrum of emotions that arise from loss. I so appreciate the vulnerability and truth embedded in these stories, which honor and bear witness to the many forms of bereavement that arise in the aftermath of death. -DR. ERICA GOLDBLATT HYATT, Chair of Psychology, Bryn Athyn College

HOPE . . . These stories reflect the authentic voices of individuals at the unexpected moment their lives were shattered and altered forever. Moments of strength in the midst of indescribable pain, resilience in the midst of rage; hope while mired in despair; each of which remind us in law enforcement to uphold our oath to protect and serve by never giving up. —SHERIFF SADIE DARNELL, Alachua County, Florida; Chair, Florida Cold Case Advisory Commission

"ACCURATE . . . These accounts portray an accurate picture of just what full-force repercussions follow the taking of a life." JAY HOWELL, U.S. Senate Investigator, Former Florida State Prosecutor, Co-founder - National Center for Missing & Exploited Children

BRAVE . . . The brave individuals who share their truth in this book do it for the benefit of all. CAROLYN COSTIN - Founder, Monte Nido Treatment Centers

VITAL . . . Grief Diaries: Surviving Loss of a Pregnancy gives voice to the thousands of women who face this painful journey every day. Often alone in their time of need, these stories will play a vital role in surrounding each reader with warmth and comfort as they seek understanding and healing in the aftermath of their own loss. -JENNIFER CLARKE, obstetrical R.N., Perinatal Bereavement Committee at AMITA Health Adventist Medical Center

HOPE AND HEALING . . . You are a pioneer in this field and you are breaking the trail for others to find hope and healing. -KRISTI SMITH, Bestselling Author & International Speaker

A FORCE . . .The writers of this project, the Grief Diaries anthology series, are a force to be reckoned with. I’m betting we will be agents of great change.

-MARY LEE ROBINSON, Author and Founder of Set an Extra Plate initiative

MOVING . . . In Grief Diaries, the stories are not only moving but often provide a rich background for any mourner to find a gem of insight that can be used in coping with loss. Reread each story with pen in hand and you will find many that are just right for you. -DR. LOUIS LAGRAND, Author of Healing Grief, Finding Peace

HEALING . . . Grief Diaries gives voice to a grief so private, most women bear it alone. These diaries can heal hearts and begin to build community and acceptance to speak the unspeakable. Share this book with your sisters, mothers, grandmothers and friends who have faced grief. Pour a cup of tea together and know that you are no longer alone. -DIANNA VAGIANOS ARMENTROUT, Poetry Therapist & Author of Walking the Labyrinth of My Heart: A Journey of Pregnancy, Grief and Infant Death

INCREDIBLE . . .Thank you so much for doing this project, it’s absolutely incredible!-JULIE MJELVE, Founder, Grieving Together

STUNNING . . . Grief Diaries treats the reader to a rare combination of candor and fragility through the eyes of the bereaved. Delving into the deepest recesses of the heartbroken, the reader easily identifies with the diverse collection of stories and richly colored threads of profound love that create a stunning read full of comfort and hope. -DR. GLORIA HORSLEY, President, Open to Hope Foundation

WONDERFUL . . .Grief Diaries is a wonderful computation of stories written by the best of experts, the bereaved themselves. Thank you for building awareness about a topic so near and dear to my heart.

HELLO FROM HEAVEN

DEDICATION

To our beloved:

Moments are fleeting,

memories are permanent,

love is forever.

Jordan Anthony Ebanks

Alyssa Victoria Yvonne Fell

Jacob Benjamin Flesher

Joy Ruth Frownfelter

William Hayes Holesapple, Jr.

Sophie K.

David Edward Kenyon

Scott Michael Jessie

Mark Thomas Mueller

Carolyn Renee Olson

Irma Rose Potter

Kevin John Redmond

John Kirby Reilly

Timothy Arnold Roden

Elizabeth Noel Sclafani

Megan Lynn Serrao Wellington

Robin Worthington

TESTIMONIALS

DEDICATION

FOREWORD

PREFACE

FROM THE BEGINNING

THE FIRST SIGN

A LOOK AT OUR BELIEFS

PAST EXPERIENCES

THE REASONS WHY

THE PSYCHIC DEPENDENCY

OUR BELIEFS ABOUT REALMS

TELLING OTHERS

QUESTIONING PRIOR BELIEFS

FACING SKEPTICS

THE VIVID DETAILS

WHAT SURPRISED US MOST

WISHING FOR MORE

OPEN TO LEARNING

PSYCHIC MEDIUMS

FREQUENCY & VARIETY

FINDING A SILVER LINING

IMPORTANCE OF HOPE

SHARING OUR JOURNEYS

MEET THE WRITERS

THANK YOU

LYNDA CHELDELIN FELL

ABOUT THE SERIES

BY CHRISTINE DUMINIAK

FOREWORD

Can the dead actually contact the living, or are such reported incidences a figment of a griever’s imagination, hallucinations, or just wishful thinking? I was one of those many skeptics who believed that afterlife contacts were just wishful thinking and that people who were talking about receiving contacts from the dead were a little bit out there. In fact, if anyone would bring up this woo-woo topic in front me, my eyes would often glaze over with disinterest and disbelief. I remember seeing a news article in 1996 that said the dead actor Michael Landon of the popular TV series, Bonanza, Little House On the Prairie, and Highway to Heaven, was visiting his daughter from beyond the grave. I felt sorry for her. I thought she had set herself up for ridicule in Hollywood by sharing her imaginative thoughts. Boy, was I wrong! Two years after reading this article, all of my skeptical doubts disappeared when I personally experienced a knock-your-socks-off afterlife visitation that lasted for almost an hour!

Although I am not a psychic or a medium, and wasn’t grieving anyone at the time, those significant factors did not seem to stop a spectacular otherworldly event from happening on March 19, 1998. God certainly had something spectacular planned when, in the middle of the night, my dead in-laws spontaneously appeared in my bedroom. I could see them, and I could see through them. They showed themselves to me from the chest up. My mother-in-law was wearing a flapper-style hat, red lipstick, and white pearls around her neck, reminiscent of the 1940s. My father-in-law was wearing a fedora-style hat, a black suit jacket, a striped tie, and a white hankie in his top left suit pocket. They were all dressed up for what looked like a special night out on the town, and this night out on the town was taking place right in my very own bedroom! Amazing! How did I know without a doubt that this vision was for real, and not just some wild, crazy dream I was having? Because while I was witnessing the jaw-dropping apparitions of both of my in-laws right before my very eyes, I shook my husband to wake him up. I excitedly exclaimed, Your parents are here! Your parents are here! I wanted to be sure he would not miss out on such a glorious opportunity to visit with his parents one more time. I pointed to where they were standing right in front of me. But alas, he could not see them; I alone was given the special ability to see their spiritual presence on that eventful, life-changing night in 1998.

That first spiritual visit, and subsequent repeated ones from my in-laws in the weeks to come, led me on a spiritual journey to find out all I could about after-death communications. It also instilled in me a deep desire to help the bereaved who dearly desired and yearned to receive an afterlife contact.

Since 1998 numerous grievers have shared with me that they needed an afterlife sign just to be assured that their loved ones were okay and safe with God—especially if the loved one died by suicide. Some severely depressed grievers secretly harbored their own dark thoughts of suicide after the loss of a loved one, no matter how the loved one had passed. They were in great despair and pain because they felt that their loved ones were no longer a part of their lives, even if they believed they were residing with God now. Others believed that their loved ones no longer even existed or, if they did, were in a deep dark hole somewhere, never to be heard from again. Many grievers said they needed some type of an afterlife sign to know that their loved ones were still a part of their lives. They were hoping that somehow, some way, there was an ongoing connection. For without a sign from them, they felt they wouldn’t be able to continue to endure the awful heartbreaking pain of their devastating loss.

You too, dear reader, may be hoping and praying for an afterlife sign and wondering if this is really possible. Can people who have died actually contact you from beyond? You may be wondering whether God knows about our pain. Does God even care? Can God send our loved ones to us to bring us comfort and reassurance? My many personal spiritual experiences and listening to thousands of others’ afterlife contact stories since 1998 have convinced me, unquestionably, that not only is it possible for the dead to contact the living, but through God’s grace and tender loving care, He actually sends them to us to replace our heart’s sorrow with joy. Often, an afterlife contact will be in answer to fervent prayers to God to receive one.

Afterlife signs will grab your attention because they will be unusual or peculiar occurrences. These unexplained experiences may have caused you to stop and wonder if you were actually being contacted by your loved one. And that is exactly when you should definitely embrace and claim it, smile, and say thank you! By doing so, you may start to receive even more contacts from them. Comforting afterlife signs can come in many different forms such as: dreams, visions, through pets, audio, music, telepathic thoughts, scents, touches, a presence, electrical and electronic manipulations, computers, phone calls, text messages, answering machines, caller IDs, photos, gifts, coins, butterflies, dragonflies, birds, animals, insects, rainbows, numbers, license plates, candles, orbs, and Godincidences, to name a few common types.

Children have a special ability to see and hear spirits, so please don’t dismiss a child when he or she says they have just seen, for instance, their Grammy, yet you know that their Grammy is no longer physically alive. Please believe them and rejoice in the knowledge that your loved one has come to play with or visit your child. Pets have a similar ability, so they may react strangely when they see the spirit of their owner. Take notice.

The bereaved often ask How can I receive and recognize an afterlife sign? The following advice has proven to be a very effective two-step method. First, ask God to allow your loved one to visit you in a comforting way. Second, state something specific to your loved one that you would recognize as an afterlife sign from them, using the list of types of afterlife signs I have given above, for example, a butterfly. This way, when you receive your sign, you will know that your loved one has heard and answered you, as well as knowing that God has blessed you and is comforting you.

In Grief Diaries: Hello From Heaven, you will find uplifting and heartfelt stories from those who have received afterlife contacts, and the healing and joy that these contacts have brought them. Their beautiful stories will help you to know what is spiritually possible. They will help you to embrace any signs you may be getting, and to realize that you are not alone. Your loved ones can still see and hear you, and continue to be a loving part of your life. So it is never too late to talk to them about anything that is in your heart. It is never too late to say I love you, I forgive you, forgive me, thank you, and goodbye to the physical you, but hello to the new spiritual relationship we are now going to have. You are connected by love, and love never dies. Please try to embrace this comforting knowledge and believe. For believing and being spiritually open will make it that much easier for your loved one to get through with his or her gift of an afterlife contact.

I believe that afterlife contacts and signs, hellos from heaven, are a special gift from God’s heart to comfort those who mourn. Heaven loves you very much, and afterlife contacts are proof of that love. God bless you.

CHRISTINE DUMINIAK, Certified Grief Recovery Specialist

Author, Grammy Visits From Heaven, Heaven Talks to Children, and God’s Gift of Love: After-death communications

www.christineduminiak.com

BY LYNDA CHELDELIN FELL

PREFACE

One night in 2007, I had one of those dreams, the vivid kind you can’t shake. In the dream, I was the front passenger in a car and my daughter Aly was sitting behind the driver. Suddenly, the car missed a curve in the road and sailed into a lake. The driver and I escaped the sinking car, but Aly did not. Desperately flailing through the deep murky water to find my daughter, I failed. She was gone. The only evidence left behind was a book floating on the water where my daughter disappeared.

Two years later that nightmare became reality when my fifteen-year-old daughter died as a back seat passenger in a car accident on August 5, 2009.

I arrived at the crash scene to find my daughter, my precious third-born with the smooth tan skin, strong swim shoulders, and long blonde hair, strapped to a backboard and draped by a stark white sheet. I knelt down beside her, paused for a second, and then sought her hand under the sheet’s edge. I sat there, with her hand in mine, for what felt like ages. The emergency responders and law enforcement gathered behind me, respectively hushed as they took in the scene. Their collective compassion surrounded my daughter and I, enveloping us with love. For a brief moment, I looked up into nothingness, nothing but the dark field that stretched before us, and that is when I saw her. My beloved grandmother, who had passed thirteen years before, had an arm around Aly and was gently leading her away. Aly was looking over her right shoulder at me as she walked beside the great-grandmother she never knew. Walking away from me—forever.

In the years since the accident, our life has been turned upside down. But we have also experienced countless events involving Aly that brought us comfort. One time, our oldest son climbed out of his truck for two minutes. When he got back in, he felt a lump under his floor mat—a lump that wasn’t there just minutes prior. Lifting up the mat, he discovered one of Aly’s blue rocks. Her favorite color, she often painted fist-size rocks blue and placed them outside for the fairies. And now one was suddenly sitting under the floor mat of our son’s truck. It lifted his heart.

One night I was playing a word game on my iPad. I began a fresh game and waited for the new tiles to dispense. When they did, it stole my breath. There in perfect order were just three letter tiles: A-L-Y. I smiled. How could I not?

In the seven years since her death, our family’s list of unexpected incidences involving Aly could go on and on. But my family isn’t unique; our experiences are shared by many. Grief Diaries: Hello From Heaven is filled with similar accounts of after-death communication from loved ones who had passed away. I applaud the writers for sharing such remarkable stories; one has to be quite brave to share such things, as not everyone believes in after-death communication. Some might even believe it is evil. How can something that brings so much comfort be evil? Comfort only comes from God, not disguised as sheep in wolf’s clothing.

Although my family has witnessed our fair share of hardship and tragedy over the past seven years, my faith is strong and unshakable. I believe in God and Jesus with all my heart. I also believe in the magic of heaven and the afterlife. I believe that there is more to life than meets the eye. I believe my dream two years before the accident was a heads-up from God, a divine glimpse into a path I couldn’t yet fathom. I believe my grandmother collected Aly that night in the field so I would know Aly was led safely to heaven following her tragic death.

Do I think Aly’s rock under my son’s floor mat was a coincidence? No. Do I think that three tiles spelling Aly’s name in perfect order is coincidence? No, again. Can some of our experiences be chalked up to coincidence? Probably so, if one tries hard enough. But many of our experiences are so improbable that even coincidence appears to be a stretch.

For some no amount of convincing will make a difference. For the rest of us, Grief Diaries: Hello From Heaven will tell the tales of many who believe that after-death communication is alive and well, and so are our loved ones.

Wishing you healing and hope from the Grief Diaries village.

Warm regards,

Lynda Cheldelin Fell

Creator, Grief Diaries

WWW.LYNDAFELL.COM

CHAPTER ONE

FROM THE BEGINNING

Infinity is a way to describe the incomprehensible to the human mind. In a way, it notates a mystery. That kind of mystery exists in relationships. A lifetime is not enough to know someone else. It provides a brief glimpse. -SIMON MCBURNEY

In order to experience after-death communication, one must first experience loss of a loved one. For most, that loss results in a long and unique journey through grief and sorrow. In this chapter each writer shares that moment when they lost his or her loved one to help you understand their after-death communication experiences that brought them so much comfort.

*

CHRISTINE BASTONE

Christine’s 38-year-old sister

Liz died by suicide in 2012

My baby sister, Elizabeth Noel Shively-Sclafani, died by suicide on February 10, 2012. Ironically, that day started out as a happy day for me. I picked up my new prescription glasses that morning, my first ones with progressive lenses (like bifocals, only better). And then I went to my son’s school to watch him receive an award. It was the first award he had had in a while, so I was very happy about that. I had absolutely no idea that my bold, beautiful, sensitive and perfectionist baby sister had died by suicide. For a long time I felt very guilty about being happy on the day my sister died. That just seems so very wrong. Since I had no way of knowing, I have let go of most of that guilt. Writing about it in one of my letters to Liz certainly helped that. It still feels wrong though.

I found out that Liz died on the evening of February 11. My parents called me. Nothing in my life had prepared me at all for the intense shock of the news.

Fast-forward to a year later: The day was February 10, 2013. I had just finished hosting a Facebook event for Liz’s first death anniversary. I was at my computer when a Facebook friend of mine, a medium who had attended the event, asked me if it would be okay to share a message from Liz, who was with Elizabeth. Sometimes called Betsy, she was my grandmother. I said that I would love that. My friend gave me some background information on one of the pictures that I shared at the event. The following is the relevant parts of the conversation that I wish to share.

MY FRIEND: She sends love to you. She takes her first two fingers of her right hand and touches her lips, and then touches your lips without speaking. She says she had a very special lipstick that she used that would not come off. It was very expensive and she searched and searched for it. This was the red one. Then she smiles. Betsy wants you to know that when Liz passed, Betsy was there with her. She carried her over to the other side. She says you need to know that Liz was not alone when she died. Betsy was with her.

ME: Wow . . . that is so awesome! Oh, [tears in eyes] that Betsy was there with her when Liz passed.

MY FRIEND: Love from her to Josh also [Josh is my son]. She wants to send love to your daughter as well. Liz says your daughter has always been so alive to the world. She loves that about her. She used to watch her when she awakened after sleep as a baby. She says that when your daughter woke from sleep, she was wide awake immediately, taking everything in with her eyes. So interested, lively, and curious even as a baby. She loves that about your daughter.

ME: May I ask if she’s happy now? Does she say anything about why? Or why she didn’t talk to me about how bad she was feeling?

MY FRIEND: She felt so very, very tired. She had no energy. She had no joy in anything anymore. She loved her family, but she couldn’t feel joy or much of anything anymore. She just decided to end it. She also felt like she was hurting her children and their dad because of her inability to reach out to anyone. Not even you. She felt like everyone in her little family was being hurt by her. Because she couldn’t pay attention and couldn’t be there for them.

ME: Yeah, that doesn’t surprise me.

MY FRIEND: She has a lot of love for you all.

ME: Does she know how much I love and miss her? Does she see and like what I’ve done in her name, her page, and the event today?

MY FRIEND: Yes, of course. That is why she and Betsy are here. In any case Liz brings you a ton of love and so does the grandmother. She is working through things, she says. She is not really happy. She is still feeling the sadness she has caused others.

ME: Awww. But she’s okay?

MY FRIEND: It is her task to work through this, through these feelings. She felt so helpless on Earth to change who she was. But now she sees that she was not totally helpless. She had allies. Yes, she is okay. She is learning, she says.

ME: Good. I’m so glad she’s okay.

MY FRIEND: Christine, I have to go. I have a reading scheduled and I need to go meditate. I’m sorry.

ME: Okay. I have to go too. Thank you so much for this!

MY FRIEND: Glad to be of service on this day for you. Hugs!

ME: Again thank you so much for our conversation tonight! Although I still have many questions, at least I got an answer to one of my most important ones. There are no words to say how much that comforts me. Because I wanted at least one answer so very much.

MY FRIEND: You are welcome, Christine.

That conversation helped me so much. Although it was what I see as the short version, and I still want the long version, at least I got some information on why. I have convinced myself that it’s enough to be content with until I see her again.

*

DEBBIE BROWN

Debbie’s 37-year-old husband Don

died of an accidental overdose in 2015

I met Don when I was thirty-six and divorcing my husband. Don was nineteen, and seventeen years my junior. The connection was immediate. As a teenager I had drawn pictures of the Greek god Pan, and he had had the same face as Don. The funny part is that when I was drawing these pictures Don wasn’t even born yet. I always used to say that I had thought that the universe was sending me signs, and later on I would tease him and say the universe was sending signs warning me to stay away from him. We had a deep connection but still had our share of troubles, starting with health problems. He had a bad back and was on and off pain meds through the years. He developed an addiction to them, which put a strain on our whole family. He had realized the problem and was taking Suboxone to deal with the addiction and was a week away from his last dose and was proud he had come so far. Or so we thought.

We stayed up all night watching movies and cuddling and went to sleep at 6 a.m. He woke me at 9 to tell me that someone wanted him to work on his car and he didn’t want to go but they wouldn’t stop calling. I heard the knock on the door and he left to do the repair job. I got up a few hours later and went to the bathroom. The door was locked and I figured my daughter was in there but she wasn’t answering me. I got scared that she was sick and told her that if she didn’t answer I was going to bust the door open. No answer. I pulled the door open and found my husband on the floor. He had passed hours before. No sign of what had caused his death. Just my gorgeous man lying there, gone.

What we have pieced together since then is that the person he met that morning had given him something to snort in exchange for working on his car. My husband then walked back into the house, into the bathroom, locked the door and passed. This we didn’t know until three weeks later when the bloodwork came back. He had no way of knowing that the drug he was given was a fatal dose of Fentanyl. He had hidden the addiction and was doing well until an abscessed tooth sent him to the dentist. And that dentist, not knowing his problem, gave him painkillers and started the cycle all over again. It was the classic one last time and then I’m done, not knowing that it would be the real one last time.

*

LEA ANN COOMBS

Lea Ann’s 72-year-old mother

Mary Ann died from brain cancer in 2015

My mother was never, ever sick. She only had high blood pressure, but was having trouble controlling it even with the medicine. In May she had a small seizure. We took her to the emergency room and she was diagnosed with five brain tumors. Two months later we put her in home hospice, and two months later she passed away.

*

ANGELA EBANKS

Angela’s 23-year-old son Jordan

was killed by a drunk driver in 2013

Jordan Anthony Ebanks was born on November 6, 1990, in the Cayman Islands. I raised Jordan alone until he was eight and then he lived between me and his dad after that. For the last five years of his life, Jordan had come back home and lived with me. At eighteen, he didn’t have a lot of prospects for a great future in the Cayman Islands; it is small, crime-ridden and void of productive choices for the young people there. Most of them begin drinking and using marijuana at a young age; it’s pretty much expected by their peers