Ten years have passed since Andy last talked to me. Ten years is a long time but it really seems like yesterday. Ace has let me know on a regular basis that he is still watching over us. Some of you that read this may believe and some may not, but I am going to tell you what happened in our house the first week of March.
Denis and I had finished dinner, and we had put a few dishes and the silverware in the sink, intending to wash up after we watched the news. I will tell you that we have a modest, cozy house so it is not far from the living room to the kitchen. As we were watching TV, we both hear a sound coming from the kitchen, metal on metal. It is something rattling silverware against silverware or against the stainless steel sink. I put the TV on mute. We both hear the noise. It stops. We both shrug and continue to watch TV. Again, we hear metal rattling in the kitchen! We mute the TV again and we both listen. We hear the clanking again! Denis gets up and walks into the kitchen and again all goes quiet. He is puzzled but comes back in to finish watching the news. Again, we both hear the same sound. TV goes on mute and we both go to the kitchen.
At this point, we decide to eliminate the dishes in the sink and clean up. I also look in all the drawers that might have metal to see if there is anything that might have been the source. Nothing!
At this point, it is quiet. We finish watching the news and don't think a whole lot of it. This all occurred on a Thursday evening.
Have you ever had the dream where things look like real places and the people seem real? Well, the following Sunday after the silverware clanking phenomena, I had such a dream. I was in our dining room where we raised the boys. Andy, as a two and a half to three year old, comes barreling towards me! I lean down and he hugs my neck and wraps his skinny little legs around my waist! He is hanging on like a monkey! We are hugging and laughing so hard that I lose my balance...I lower myself to the floor with Andy still clinging. I cannot begin to tell you the pure joy that I was feeling laying on the floor, laughing with Andy, feeling his breath on my neck. As it usually does, the real world interfered and the alarm clock woke me up, bursting the dream bubble. I managed to hold on to that wonderful feeling despite the abrupt wake up call, but I really was a bit off my game the entire day.
That evening, as Denis and I were taking our usual two mile walk, I was telling him that I was a bit discombobulated at work all day Monday because I was awakened so abruptly from my Andy dream. Denis said to me, "Do you remember the other night when the silverware was rattling? Do you know what day that was? It was the day ten years ago that Andy came home to us. That was Ace in the kitchen."
Between the noise episode and the dream with Andy hugging me, I know that he is here with us, encouraging us all to continue going forward and that he is with us every step of the way, even after ten years have gone by.
Thank you, my Andy. Love you to the moon and back.
Ace's Mom ~ "There is nothing to be unhappy about." Andy "Ace" Nowacki
