This morning I was washing the turkey platter and felt like my mama was with me.   For years growing up my stepmother had a lovely turkey platter and I often used to wish my mama had one like it... and in 1976 just a few weeks before Christmas I saw the most beautiful turkey platter in a store window.... I parked my cab and went in and the platter cost $30.  I made good money as a cab driver so that was a very reasonable price... I bought the platter and was so thrilled to give it to my mama Christmas morning.   When I gave it to her I told her what had prompted me to buy her that platter... how I had wanted one for her for years... and that it was so good to be able to fulfill that childhood longing... Mama loved that platter and was very proud of it.  In later years I used to tease mama that while I had always thought I wanted that platter for her I thought perhaps I'd really wanted it for myself and perhaps she should let me have it.  Mama would always say, "No way... you'll get it over my dead body."  She didn't mean it literally... it was just a joke we shared in a time when thoughts of her death were far away...   We were joking... It was my way of fishing for compliments on the wonderful gift I'd bought her... and her way of telling me how much she liked the platter... The years passed and April 22, 2006 mama passed and I picked up the platter... Then Cara passed October 30, 2006.  Obviously there were no holidays for me last year.  It was too soon and all I did was move through the days.  Life was a blur. So as I was washing the platter this morning I was looking at all the beautiful colors... and I was thinking that I definitely didn't want the platter not even over mama's dead body... and all of a sudden my mama said in that same old way... strong and laughing... "well that's the only way you were going to get it..."  mama wasn't fussing... mama was laughing and inviting me to laugh with her once again... A little later this morning I picked up a card off the floor... It was one of the in memory of cards from mama's funeral service... with the 23rd Psalms on it... I don't know how the card came to be there... and I'm just wondering if mama just left me a calling card to tell me that she has indeed been here today... and all my days... with Cara and my other loved ones popping in an out at will... We don't know sometimes... but sometimes these "Godincidences" are so frequent and strong... it fills me with such hope and happiness...  Much of it can be explained away by "rational" minds... but I truly think its very possible... even probable that they are here... and I'm grateful for our miracles.  Hugs Elissa