I had a dream last night about my grandmother, who died in 2011. I was at her house with my dad’s brothers, and she had been put on hospice but was in her final 24-48 hours. She was sleeping in a recliner in the living room. My uncles and I had split up the watch. I had just laid down to go to sleep, and the middle brother (my dad is the youngest of six; the first three were girls and the last three were boys) woke me and told me to come in the living room because my grandmother had quit breathing.
I ran into the living room and looked at my uncles and yelled, “Well, get her on the floor!” I wanted to start resuscitative efforts. The middle brother hesitated but the oldest brother jumped to action when I yelled at him and the middle brother followed suit.
I leaned over her to feel her pulse (she was cold and still and unresponsive), and she opened her eyes and grabbed me around the shoulders and pulled herself up. “The darkness is closing in,” she sad, somewhat sadly but also with a cautionary tone; the implied message was that I should move away.
“I’m not afraid of death,” I said confidently, without hesitation.
“He is coming!” she said, looking past me onto the back patio, in the dark of the night. I visualized the grim reaper in my mind’s eye.
“I can handle him,” I said with a grin. She looked into my eyes, searching for something. I maintained eye contact with her, firmly supporting her on the floor. She seemed satisfied, then relaxed, then fell back limply, having breathed her last.
—
I was present when she died. The circumstances were similar in real life, but basically the entire family was present. She was on hospice, and we did know that she was imminent. My dad being one of six, I have 15 first cousins and many second cousins, as well as my aunts’ and uncles’ spouses. But everyone always agreed I was the favorite grandchild.
Just before she died, everyone had stepped away for a moment except for me and her favorite daughter. She was breathing but unconscious and had been fighting death for quite some time. It should have happened already, honestly...I walked over to the head of the bed (I was previously seated at the foot) and gave her a kiss on the cheek and a long hug and I whispered in her ear, “We are all going to be just fine. Don’t worry about us. We are going to miss you, but we are going to be fine.” It was so hard for me to say this, and I was choking back tears the entire time and broke down after I said it, but she passed very soon after that.
I wondered if the dream signified a communication that happened between our souls in that moment...something on some other plane.
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