When a Friend Dies

I learned today that a dear friend of mine passed to Spirit recently. She had been ill but I was not aware it was a life-threatening illness, so the news coming from her son was a bit of a shock. It set me thinking about friends and what goes through our minds when we lose one.

The first thing I thought of after recovering from the shock was the first time we met, when she came to a church service I was conducting in San Francisco. Whilst she regularly attended the church at that time, she was still very much seeking, trying to understand about the spirit and at the same time give extra meaning to her life which and changed quite dramatically not long before. We next met in Canada when she was visiting relatives and I was teaching and demonstrating there. I was able to bring her some evidential information concerning her father in spirit and from that time we became friends – mostly internet friends but nevertheless friends. She joined the International Spiritualist Federation of which I was then the President and came to a teaching week of ours in London.

We would correspond by email regularly on spiritual matters and because she had a very keen and enquiring mind, she would sometimes introduce me to novel ways of examining the spiritual dimension and our role while in a physical body. I shall miss her physical presence and our emails a great deal but I am sure she will make every effort to contact me over the next few months. I know that with her knowledge, background and sincerity, she will quickly adapt to life in the spiritual world and will waste no time learning how to communicate with those of us here on Earth.

After these thoughts passed through my mind, I began to realise that I too was getting closer to the time when the Great Spirit will call “time” on my sojourn here on Earth. I went on to think about all the things I should be doing before that time arrives. Over the years and as a result of my privileged position as a lifelong Spiritualist whose family have many connections with the Spiritualist Movement in Britain, I have absorbed a certain amount of knowledge. I have been lucky enough for instance, to experience virtually every type of mediumship as well as having the honour to work for spirit both as teacher and medium. Whilst I have written two books which include accounts of some of those experiences, I realise I have more to offer and unless I press on, my time will have elapsed before I have been able to pass on all that I should. I realise that having been blessed with reasonably robust health, I should not hesitate to travel as much as possible in order to help more people understand the role of the spirit in our lives. The opportunities are there and I have sometimes been slow to take advantage of them.

The passing of a friend therefore brings a mixture of emotions; first sadness and a sense of loss; then curiosity as to if and when they will communicate and prove their continued existence. Next comes nostalgia and those memories that have not been at the forefront of our mind, perhaps for years; the happy times of sharing and exchanging ideas; drawing closer over time as we share our problems, triumphs and disasters; the support given to one another in times of trial; learning from one another as we grope our way towards a better understanding of life and its purpose.

Then there comes thankfulness that we have been blessed by knowing this soul and a prayer that they will be helped in their new home, to adapt and to learn quickly the new powers and abilities they can now exercise freely; even perhaps a thought that they may continue to help us from the spiritual world. I am certainly grateful and blessed that I knew this particular friend and I look forward to the day when once again we can share our thoughts and ideas when I too am in spirit.

Friends are a special gift that we should treasure and never take for granted. They brighten our darker days and add lustre to the brighter ones. They come into our lives at special times for each of us and through them we come to learn in a most wonderful way, just how much every one of us is a spiritual brother or sister of the other. Our friend may live many miles away from us but their friendship makes a mockery of physical distance; no matter where each of us lives, the joining of minds in correspondence or conversation makes it seem as though we are side by side. We should rejoice that at last they have been freed from physical bondage and are now able to enjoy a liberty that is not possible to those of us who live in earthly bodies. As a tribute to the privilege of enjoying their friendship we should try harder to leave behind us one or two “footprints in the sands of time” that may help another come to a better understanding of their role in life.