In August of this year, Helping Parents Heal (HPH), a loving heart-filled organization dedicated to assisting bereaved parents with support and resources as they go through the heartbreak of loss and grief, held their third conference in the beauty and extreme desert environment of Arizona. This in person gathering of parents from all over the world allowed for personal connections with each other, and with their children in spirit.
Over one thousand parents gathered in this sacred place on the Gila River Indian Reservation, a beautiful location, to hear stories shared about spiritual connections. Numerous presentations by well-known mediums, spiritual advisors, healing practitioners and more were on the agenda. I witnessed many parents who received messages from their children, all of them thrilled and filled with love.
I was attending as a bereaved parent, my son Matthew transitioned several years ago. He connected with me, from his new home in the world of spirit, immediately upon his passing. My life has never been the same. One huge aspect of this new direction was Matthew leading me to this HPH group, these shining light souls.
He also led me to work in the world of mediums, and I was also attending this conference as an assistant to Susanne Wilson, the Carefree Medium. Susanne held a wonderful presentation discussing what life for the children is like in the spirit world. We both enjoyed several presentations, engaged in discussions and lots of hugs, and shared stories with other attendees. These were not parents deep in grief, as they had been involved in this organization long enough to know that there is no true death, their children and other loved ones in spirit are right there, and that love never dies.
It was nice to meet up with a few fellow parents and presenters I had met previously on this journey, and to make new friends with some I had not had the pleasure of meeting in person before. The entire event was a wonderful experience of love and hope, healing and helping each other down the road of life.
Some of us parents were inspired by our children to commemorate their lives, both in the physical and in the spiritual worlds, by writing books about our experiences. I had the pleasure of sitting with my fellow authors, Dolores Cruz, Rosanne Grover Norris and Nancy Hejna as we gathered one evening for the official book signings. I won’t say our tables were swamped with autograph hounds, but we did enjoy some conversations and exchanges amongst ourselves and those few purchasers who made their way to our little corner.
The conference included numerous opportunities for attendees to hear a number of mediums give demonstrations and readings to the group. Gordon Smith, James Van Praagh, and Maureen Hancock were featured in sessions for all attendees, and they delivered many amazing messages.
Several more mediums, too many to list here, also held smaller group sessions and demonstrations. Many parents were touched by their spirit children. I attended the large sessions and a couple of the smaller groups, and as usual, was amazed at how spirit comes in with beautiful messages for their parents. To see the joy, the tears, the excitement in the faces of those hearing from their children is in itself a healing experience for me.
I am a medium myself, though I have not pushed myself to give readings to the public, which may change in the near future. I have experienced spirit communications from both sides of the veil. My son Matthew has come through with evidence and messages a number of times through other mediums and students practicing this skill. I know he is keeping an eye out on my life and continues to nudge me along my own development. He certainly knows how to get my attention when I need it. Having heard from him numerous times, I do not ask him to step up with something for me when I attend medium presentations, live or on-line. Instead, I ask Matthew to help bring in the spirit children, assist them in communicating clearly for their parents in attendance. He is remarkably good at doing this, and these parents are hoping for those messages. I love it when, once in a while, the medium remarks that Matthew is helping. That is all I need to put a proud mama smile on my face.
This time I did put out a little thought note to Matthew, with my usual “I know you are fine, and please help the children connect with their mom and dad, they really need to hear from them” plea to him when I attended any sessions. But I had a selfish aspect that popped up, and hoped maybe he could step in somewhere, with someone, and give me a little guidance. It would not hurt to ask, this one time, for a little note of inspiration.
I had been stymied for some time trying to move forward with writing my second book. Matthew had certainly nudged me along to write the story of his connecting with me when he passed over. My first book “Living & Loving Life All Day Every Day” details the wonders and healing from his reaching out to me. I wanted to pull together and present another book, related to how Matthew had encouraged me to change my course in life, to the point where I was now a medium.
There are a lot of tales to share about how mediumship entered my life, and many amazing messages from my spirit people and those I personally connected with, but I was stuck on how to pull it all together in a book that someone may want to actually read. Knowing there would be a few opportunities to sit in on presentations and connections by a number of mediums, I asked Matthew for some guidance, if nothing more than a short message of encouragement and a little direction on moving forward with my intended project.
The very first morning of the conference, during the opening presentations, Matthew surprised me.
I entered the huge room, filled with over a thousand wonderful people, and scanned around for a familiar face, someone with an empty chair next to them I could occupy. I had arrived a little behind schedule as the opening ceremony had already begun. I noticed a few available seats in the far back corner of this enormous room, and quietly made my way over to settle in and listen. One advantage to being this far back was I had a good view of the entire room, though the presenters were a bit of distance away on stage. At least there were two huge screens showing the presentations. Everyone was paying attention.
Several minutes after the speaker began her talk, I glanced around the room, and noticed someone coming across the back area, behind the attendees, walking towards where I was located. As he approached, looking at me, I assumed he was looking for a place to sit, and there were a couple of empty seats at my side. I motioned he could join me, and he did. He sat down, reached out his hand to say hello, and there was Matthew! This fellow introduced himself, and as he did so, he handed me a pink heart shaped stone. He shared that my son, Matthew, had told him to come in, find me, sit next to me, and make this connection. Well, you had me at hello!
Long story, too much to share here in this blog, but one which I will now detail in my upcoming book. The short story is that this fellow, who I had never met and did not know, was one of the mediums who had been involved with several of the HPH online events and was scheduled to do group readings over the weekend. His name, Christopher Mendez. He may have been a stranger in my life up to now, but we were old soul friends, sharing our hearts. I tell you; he had Matthew right there giving irrefutable evidence, and encouragement to keep doing what I am doing, and going where I am going with this mediumship.
Christopher told me that he was outside, meditating, enjoying the early morning peace. It was not his intention to go inside to listen to the opening sessions, but my son came to him, asking Christopher to come inside the enormous room, filled with so many people, to “find my mom and give her a message”. Who could say no to spirit, especially one of the children of one of the parents, attending this conference. Christopher had no idea what I looked like, or how in the world he would find me in this audience. Matthew directed his path, led him to where I was sitting, pretty much by myself in the back corner. And here is where we met, and the messages relayed.
Christopher shared so much with me, whispering as we were in the back row, trying not to become a disturbance to nearby attendees but too involved in the connection to get up and move. In this short interaction, Matthew talked of rainbows and his dog, my grandfather being with him, our deep connection as mother and son, and my stepping into the world of mediums. I was elated! Here my son found someone to connect with me, give a direct nudge, encouragement to continue the path I was on, and push me to be confident in where I was headed.
As the messages drew to a close, Christopher and I exchanged hugs, contact information, and discussed the possibilities of interacting in mediumship, as a team, in the future. I sure did not expect anything close to this remarkable experience, but it happened. We parted ways. I will be reaching out to him soon, and we shall see where that leads.
Meanwhile, there were still a lot of presentations and interactions coming, and Matthew was not done.
The final afternoon of the conference I attended a gallery reading. This is the term for a mediumship demonstration. The medium, or mediums, stand in front of a group and ask the spirit people of the attendees to step forward and give evidence and messages. These are usually short interactions, considering that there are a lot of people wanting messages, and limited time to make the connections. Gallery readings are very inspiring. Not everyone will get a message, but those who do are grateful, and those who listen are touched.
There were seven different rooms holding these readings. Attendees were not given the names of the mediums ahead of time, so one could not pick and choose their favorite mediums. You just enter a room and see who shows up, and hope there will be a connection with your loved one. I entered one of these locations and decided to sit in the back rows. Matthew had already given me quite a beautiful connection with Christopher, though he did not comment on my book, something that I had hoped to get a little direction on. So, I sat far enough away that the mediums would not see me clearly, it was a long room. I hoped that maybe, this time, Matthew would pop in and address my concern. He did not disappoint.
The room nearly filled up. The mediums who entered for this gallery reading were Tina Powers and Jamie Clark. I knew them both, through my work with Susanne Wilson. In fact, I had a nice conversation with Tina a couple of days earlier and had a quick chat with Jamie earlier that morning. General hi, how are you, what’s new type of chat, nothing in particular. Seeing they were the mediums for this gathering I had my hopes up. I felt Matthew may drop in, and he did.
Tina and Jamie took turns giving short connections and messages for several parents in the audience. At one point I heard Tina say she had a connection for someone, sitting way in the back of the room. “Hmm, not too many of us back here. Is it me?” I thought. She said it's for the one with the light all around you, stand up. Not that there was a spotlight shining over my head, but I just knew she meant me, and I stood up.
Tina moved a little closer and then realized who was standing. “Oh, I know you!” she declared, and then proceeded to make a connection with Matthew, sharing her evidence and messages. As she finished, Jamie stood up and had more! The highlight was Matthew giving me the encouragement I had been hoping for, saying that “it’s time to sit down and write that book!” He also added that I need to get more serious with my mediumship. Alrighty then.
Remembering how over the years of motherhood, how often I had to stress to Matthew the need to do his homework when he was a student or do a good job when he was an adult, it tickled me that now the tables had turned, and he was the authority figure telling me to get moving forward. I thought “HaHa Matt, thanks as I really needed someone to push me.” I meant it.
An incredible weekend on so many levels, but especially for me personally. Christopher brought messages from Matthew that were totally unexpected, and so spot on. Tina and Jaime connected with him with even more evidence, and Matthew answered my question through them. Write the book!
My progress on this writing has been slow. The focus of book two, which I have titled “Finding the Medium Within”, will present how I entered the world of mediums, and learned mediumship. Many times, I had written an opening chapter or two, only to let it sit a while, and then toss it aside. I just could not get going with a decent beginning. The ending was easy. The stages and stories of learning mediumship are sitting there in my head, ready to go. It was the opening to this book that escaped me. Hard for me to plunge into a story when the opener is elusive.
Days after I returned home from this engaging conference, meeting up with old friends and making new ones, hearing incredible stories, witnessing beautiful connections between spirit and parents, I sat down to write. My intent was to document the messages I had been blessed in receiving from Matthew through Christopher, Tina and Jamie. As I began to put down the details, those points that I could recall, the evidence and the messages, story emerged. And there it was, words flowed into sentences into paragraphs, into a chapter. The opening of my book!
Matthew found a way to answer my question, solve my dilemma, and get me back on track to write my next story. All it took was an incredible conference filled with love, some spiritual inspiration, and three incredible mediums to connect this parent with her son, to help me get inspired and create the next book “Finding the Medium Within”. And it looks like mediumship is in my future too! Stay tuned.
My fellow friends and authors: Nancy Hejna, Dolores Salazar Cruz, and Rosanne Grover Norris. And of course, myself.
