Non Sequitur Story About My Dead Grandparents Coming to Talk to Me

I'm going to a big group reading w/ a medium tomorrow. Like, a dude who talks to the dead. There will probably be a couple hundred people there so I'm not expecting anyone to come through for me personally, but it'll be a Sunday afternoon and I have time to kill, so why not?

Also, I'm lucky enough to say that I don't really know that many dead people.

The closest person to me who has died is my grandfather -- my mother's father, who died on December 31, 2004. I remember thinking that it was nice of him to die on December 31st because it kept the bad in 2004 and allowed us to start 2005 fresh. Of course, 2005 ended up being one of the worst years for me, so I totally jinxed myself there, but it was a nice thought anyway.

Boppa died at 100 years old and after being sad for a day, the next day was fresh and new and we could all be happy for him that he lived a good life and wrapped it up very tidily -- 100 years old and died on the last day of the year.

I don't think many people would argue that there's much to be sad about when someone dies at 100.

Boppa's wife, my grandmother, died more than thirty years before him. She was a lot younger than he was so he'd always expected to go first, but she actually ended up dying several years before I was born and he ended up hitting the triple digits, so that didn't work out as he'd planned at all.

Boppa and I used to discuss -- pretty regularly, actually -- that when he died, she'd be in heaven wating for him. This was ME telling HIM that though. He would say that he hoped I was right, but he wasn't buying it at all. He was a pretty black and white guy and things like heaven were just silly.

(He also thought women should have short hair -- I think he thought hair was hair and that there wasn't any point to growing it long. He was remarkably progressive in his opinions on social issues for someone of his age -- interracial marriage? SURE! But long hair? BOOOO!)

So Boppa died and that was sad for a minute, but mostly it was happy.

Then one night, probably about six months after he died, I woke up in the middle of the night and Boppa and Zena (my grandmother...and yeah, that was her actual name -- like a princess warrior, but with a Z instead of an X) were standing at the foot of my bed.

I immediately started to cry and Zena said "I told you Walter, we shouldn't have come...we're scaring her."

I said that no no -- it was okay.

And then Boppa took a step toward me and said that he just wanted to tell me that I had been right.

And then I went back to sleep and the next morning when I woke up I was like OHHHHHHHH MYYYYYY GODDDDDDDDDD THAT ACTUALLY TOTALLY HAPPENED.

And I swear to you, it did.

Over the years I've read a couple of books and watched a couple of documentaries on the general topic and even though it could easily be explained away as a dream, I prefer to side with the theory that says that when you're asleep or in a twilight state, you're more relaxed and are open to allowing these visitations  to come through.

I don't know if I actually believe in mediums but I 100% believe that my grandparents came to tell me that I had been right -- that my grandmother was in heaven, waiting for my grandfather to eventually join her. So I've already received the only message I might be expecting and do not expect to receive another tomorrow, but I guess you never know.

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Here they are on their wedding day:

When Baby AJ comes to my house she'll point at all the pictures and tell us who they're of. She knows that this one is of "Daddy's Boppa."

A-DORBS.