The other night I had a really tender dream about Wayne’s dad. He passed away several years ago rather unexpectedly. He was still young too. Only 60 and as feisty as ever.
As you might expect, it was a huge blow to Wayne. He was really close to his dad and was shocked by the sudden loss.
However, only six days prior we had spent a wonderful week with him. Tom (Wayne’s dad), Grandma Pryor (Tom’s mom), Keith (Wayne’s brother), Peach (Wayne’s aunt), and Kevin and Jerry Jr. (Wayne’s cousins) had all flown out to Florida so we could go to the Daytona 500.
We had the best time. In fact, it helped us when 10 days later we were all reunited again at the funeral. We had a bunch of things to laugh about, because Tom was a bit of a character anyway, but take him on vacation and watch out. He really came alive! That helped ease some of the pain.
My last memories of him (other than him cracking me up with his wacky antics) was him wearing this little jacket and a white newsboy style cap. In my dream, that’s how Wayne recognized him.
See, we went somewhere where it was set up you could spend one more day with your loved one. The real them, not an image of them or their ghostly spirit. Somehow they could come back from the beyond and be with you in the flesh –but just for that one day.
Wayne also had a race he wanted to run and it was wherever this place was. He was hoping his dad could watch. But first he had to find him.
To find your loved one you had to ride a trolley through this village of souls. But while we were at the trolley stop Wayne saw a man with his back turned who had Tom’s build. He was wearing a little beige jacket and the white newsboy cap.
“Dad!” he screamed, already crying, and ran to him.
But when the man turned, it wasn’t his dad. Wayne was crushed. Instead of getting on the trolley, he looked back to me all desperate and said, “I have to find him,” before sprinting off.
“I’ll be in the library,” I shouted back. (There was a great library there so I figured I’d get some research in and let Wayne spend the time alone with his dad because I knew how much that would mean to him.)
Murphy, Tabby, and Kitty were there too and they stayed with me to help with the research. Which they did. (Definitely a dream!)
Hours later Wayne comes back and finds us. He was soaked to the core (it was raining outside), bawling his eyes out, and looking just physically and mentally exhausted. My heart dropped because I feared he’d spent the whole time running around and hadn’t found his dad.
“Did you find him?”
Wayne nodded.
“Did you run the race? Did he see you?”
“I found him but I didn’t do the race. Once I found him I didn’t want to sacrifice any of my time away from him. It was too precious.”
Then he hugged me and thanked me for bringing him there but broke down crying as hard as he did when his dad first passed in real life.
“It’s so hard to say goodbye all over again,” he explained. “It brought back all the hurt, but it’s okay. I actually got to say goodbye and hug him this time. And I hugged him so hard because I knew I’d never get that chance again.”
I woke myself up crying, then I rolled over and shared the dream with Wayne. I can’t take him to that place in real life, but I knew he’d like the idea of my dream version.
He did.
Courtney Mroch writes about animals great and small in Pets and the harmony and strife that encompasses married life in Marriage. For a full listing of her articles click here.
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