Today is a big day!!! For me, it was the day, years ago, I thought "Hmmm, maybe I better try growing up today!" Of course, 45 years later that thought still hasn't come to fruition BUT the event of that day forever changed my life!!
Today is our oldest son, Mike's, birthday!!!! Mike is the amazing person who originally made me a Mother!! Thank you Mike!! I was 20 years old when I had Mike and I had never held a baby before!! He was our experimental baby. My Mom and Dad were thrilled to finally have a boy in the family - and we gave him the name that my Dad always wanted to use on each of his 4 daughters, had they turned out to be boys of course!! Long before Mike was born my dad got a dog and named him Mike. But it was just not enough. My sisters and I used to have discussions in the back seat of the station wagon, which of us would have a baby boy first and get to name it Michael Barry Boyle. Well, I won, and of course his last name is Richmond (just doesn't sound the same as Dad's chosen name) but Michael Barry Richmond was born! And ADORED!!! My Mom and Dad were scared to death to leave this bundle of joy in my care!!! My God, this idiot had never even held a baby let alone done anything else for one. So at the beginning, they would be over at our house every evening to help get him ready for bed and my Mom would be back every morning to make sure he survived the night!!!
Ye of little FAITH!! I did fine!!! NOT!!! I needed all the help I could get. Connie was my constant companion, it was summer, she was 15, and although she probably never had much to do with babies, she was already more prepared than I was. Michael was the focus of the whole Boyle family. He was around my Mom and Dad so much that in the beginning when he started to talk, he called my Mom - Mom!!! Such a cutie, blond hair with curls, big brown eyes, a smile that could always make you smile and fortunately for me, a very good baby.
He loved baseball at a very early age, still does! Loved music, still does!! Loved reading eventually and he still does!!! He's such a good person - caring, thoughtful, funny, sarcastic to a fault, loves the memory of our family life with his Grandma and Papa and the Richmond side of our family, has friendships that he's had for years, is a wonderful Father to his 4 sons and a son that we are very proud of.
All in all, I think we'll keep him!!! Unfortunately he really does not like to celebrate his birthday, and I, of course, want a big celebration. But he suffers through me singing the whole Happy Birthday to You song (probably because of my singing) and will let us have a birthday cake tomorrow night when the kids come over. So, I guess that's celebration enough for him.
Here's a picture of him today with his 4 boys - Matt, 13, Joe almost 12, Zach, 9 and Benji 5. He's really trying to instill in his boys a love a baseball and I see it happening. He worked so hard for all of them this summer. Out at the baseball park for so many games. I think it was all worth it.
Bottom line, I LOVE YOU MIKE!!! I think now that you have kids of your own you probably have a sense of how much I do Love You!!
Message to leave you with today: Babies, they will change for life, ALWAYS FOR THE GOOD!!!
Until next time . . .
I just had to write and share my most amazing experience that I had yesterday!!! I am a believer that people that have died are still connected to us. They see us, hear us and know what's going on in our lives. I come from a big extended family - my Mom had 8 brothers and sisters and my Dad had 5 brothers and sisters. All of my Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles have passed on, I even have a few of my cousins who have joined their families on the other side. So I have dealt with loss. Losing my mother 18 years ago this July was a life changer for me. My Dad died 2 years later. I find it so hard to believe that I have not had physical contact with them for that long a period. But, I constantly talk to them, they are always with me in my heart, my mind, my everyday life. I always wished God had given us a way to hear from them. Well, in reality we do hear from them, we just don't always realize it!!!
I believe in psychic mediums. I believe there are people who have been given the gift of communicating with people who have died. I have believed this for a long time and wanted, oh so bad, to have someone help me hear from my Mom and Dad.
Yesterday, I met the person that would help me do that!!! Her name is Karen Peterson, she is a psychic medium that lives and works here in Sonoma County and my sister Connie and I had a private reading with her yesterday. What she did for me (and I believe Connie) was to validate, put my mind and heart to rest, and let me communicate with my Mom and Dad. It was a magical experience for me - one that let me sleep all night last night when I haven't been able to sleep all night for years.
Karen told us that we had a "big" family and alot of spirits were there, not necessarily to talk to us but "be" with us. Some might step forward and just want to say "Hi!" And so first of all our cousin Joanne, stepped forward, waved and said Hi!! Later on, our Aunt Betty, stepped forward and said Hi!! Then our Grandma Boyle stepped forward and said she had been trying to help Connie find Grandma's information on Ancestry.com. Karen Peterson, would actually wave when the people just wanted to say Hi and wave to us.
I asked if our Aunt Edith was there, our Mom answered back, "Edy?" I said yes and then Karen said that Aunt Edith stepped forward a huge bunch of flowers and some sunflowers. I asked if the sunflowers could have anything to do with her son, Jimmy, being there. Karen responded that her son is with her and did he die suddenly? We answered, yes, he died young and unexpectedly, and she answer again, yes he was there also.
We heard from pets we had had in our family. Our little dog, Peannie (Peanuts but we called her Peannie). I remember the night Dad brought her home inside his jacket from Millbrae. She died in the fire our Mom and Dad at their home in 1974. She almost made it to the front door but just didn't get there. I loved Peannie so much. She used to know when to walk up the lane to go meet Susie (our sister in Montana) at the school bus from the time Susie was in Kindergarten. She died in February of the year Susie graduated from high school, I remember crying and thinking of Peannie at graduation and thinking, "You almost went all the way through school with her Peannie." We heard from Connie's dog Judy, Susie's horse Katie and Tony's (Connie's son) dog Sage. It was kind of weird with Sage, the psychic said I'm being taken and shown Tomales on the ocean and it turns out that's near where Sage was born and Tony got her as a newborn pup whose mother had died giving birth to her. Sage said, "Thank you, thank you, thank for giving me such a good life" and "Thanks for all the good food you gave me". It was pretty emotional for Connie, Sage was her "granddog".
But most importantly for us, Mom and Dad came to say how much they love us. And how they see everything that is going on - our kids, grandkids, our house, our yards, Mom was in the kitchen when Connie was cooking spaghetti not too long ago. I asked Mom, how long did you know you were sick? And Karen threw up her hand with her fingers outstretched. She said 5 years!!! I said, "No, that's probably Mom saying don't ask me that question!!!!" Mom was a very private person, she didn't tell us she was sick and dying, she went through it all by herself, that makes me so sad. Anyway, she also said she was in denial for a long time. Karen told us most spirits go to other places when they cross over, she said our Mom, just hangs right around all her family. She said that incredible as it sounds, spirits can be in more than 1 place at a time, and so I guess Mom hangs out in Montana, Santa Rosa, Mississippi and San Francisco. She said our Mom was so full of love, she could feel it and I just know Mom was so happy we could finally hear from her.
Dad actually came through before Mom. The psychic said he was a strong presence and he really had some stuff he needed to say to us. He said he didn't have the best growing up experience, his Dad died when he was 9 and the rest of his youth was a fight for survival. He was saved when he met our Mom and her family. But he told us that he didn't know how to be a Dad, he'd made a lot of mistakes along the way, but he wanted us to know he tried really hard, was sorry for the mistakes he did make and always loved us so much. He then asked for our forgiveness for anything he'd done that had hurt us in any way. We both cried. That was BIG for our Dad. Sorry was a word he ever used very often. When I was a kid - he and I did not get along. I was mouthy and challenged every thing he told me to do - at times I thought I hated him - but I knew I loved him. Our relationship changed when I got married, I sort of stopped being a brat and he and I just really connected. I drove him CRAZY!!! I was like Lucy on I Love Lucy or Edith on All in the family. A real scatter brain. It's like I got married, had kids and went crazy!!! I provided a lot of laughs for our family. In fact, when we went back to see Dad in Montana before he died, he was sitting in a chair and I was sitting on an ottoman. He was so sick. And I told him "Dad, I'm sorry, I just can't do the bathroom stuff with you, I just can't do it!" And he looked at me with such love and he said "That's ok Sher, you make me laugh!! And I love that about you!!" He grabbed my head and just hugged me and rubbed my hair." So yesterday was a big day for us and Dad.
My mom talked about her great granddaughter Chloe (my granddaughter). Chloe is named Chloe Frances after my Mom. And Mom was proud of that. The psychic said that Chloe is a great communicator. And we laughed and said, "That's true, she never shuts up, she talks continually!!" She reminds Connie and I so much of Tina, we just laugh and laugh when she's around.
So, that's about it for my amazing day!!! I had a long talk with Mom and Dad last night when I was going to bed. I thanked them so much for coming and being there for us, that it meant so much to me, that it reafffirms for me we will all be together again some day and when I am with them I will be able to watch over my family the same way they watch over us.
Thank you for taking the time to read this, I have lots of pictures and stories I want to share about our family and what's been happening but I just wanted to share this personal day with all of you, people that I LOVE!!!
The message I'd like to leave you with today: Your loved ones are "out there" leaving you messages all the time, try and listen, and feel the love!!!
Until next time . . .
