Treasures

Pennies from heaven

I’ve heard it said that when an angel misses you they toss a penny down for you to find.  I don’t doubt the possibility.  I never put much stock in finding pennies as messages from a loved one, but I have had my share of unusual ‘found’ objects that defy explanation.

Mother died in 1997.  She was a wonderful person.  She helped anyone who needed help without reservation.

One day in 2002 I found a clock key tucked neatly in the join of the three trunks of my jade tree.  All clock keys in the house were accounted for and there is no way that key had been in the plant a few days earlier when I had watered it.  I figured it was from my mom and said so in a joking manner.

Just a few weeks after that I found a silver butter knife in the trough of the magazine rack where I store the toilet paper in the bathroom.  I walked around the house with the unfamiliar butter knife asking everyone present if they were trying to play a trick on me, but no one fessed up.  As I mentioned, it was an unfamiliar pattern and my two silver butter knives were still in the kitchen drawer.

Over the years I would see these things happen right before my eyes. Trying to stay a skeptic and seeing it happen is totally impossible.  My sister dropped a knitting needle one evening as she was flipping her knitting around in her hand. Even though we searched under, in and around her chair it was not to be found.  Several days later it was on the floor at her feet, and had not been there moments before.  Was it Mom?  She did knit and she might have needed a spare needle to finish a project.  It’s hard to say.

I have a skeleton key that has appeared from nowhere.  I used to have a black one, but it disappeared down a toilet long ago and I have no need for a skeleton key anymore.  We don’t have a door that even has a key hole!  I keep all these treasures, because to me they are treasures.  My mom lets me know she is still watching over me in ways I can’t explain but don’t question.

Today my sister found a brand new jar of Vicks Vapor rub in the cupboard.  We moved heaven and earth a while back to find the last remaining blue jar of Vicks to give to my father-in-law at his nursing home, because the new jar Tom bought him was ‘wrong’ and no way was he going to believe that jar of Vicks was really Vicks.  It came in a blue glass jar.  After he died my husband forgot to grab that jar of Vicks and bring it home.  We just mentioned that the other day, too.  Today there it was; a new jar of Vicks with one finger mark in it.  Mom again? Or did my Father-in-law figure out how to drop things from ‘heaven’ for us?