From Beyond

No one can tell me that our loved ones aren't present in our lives after they pass on to the other side of the veil. I have witnessed the loving support of my dad time and time again over the last two and a half years. I KNOW he is still with us, still watching out for us, and still loving us even now. I miss him everyday, but I am comforted by his continued presence in my life.

Last year I went back to college. Before he died, my dad encouraged me to go back to school, and I don't know if I would have gone back after all this time if it weren't for his encouragement. This may sound funny, but I say a prayer before every test I take, and I ask that my dad might help me during my exams. I have felt him with me in the testing center at Weber State, and I have answered questions correctly that I know I couldn't have got right on my own. I still talk to my dad everyday. I jokingly tell him that it's because of him that I'm having to learn all this stuff, so it's up to him to help me out. We're both getting a college education :)

This semester I am fortunate to be taking an English class with my daughter, Alyssa. I have enjoyed having her with me in school. I never imagined I'd be going to college with my kids. Our last assignment was to write a seven page paper on six of the essays that we have read so far this semester, and connect the essays with a common theme. It's been many years since I've had to write a paper of this magnitude and I was a little intimidated. One of the requirements for the paper was that we had to have a "hook" that introduced our theme and captured the readers attention. I have pondered and worried about this paper for six weeks. One night a couple of weeks ago, I went to bed with questions about the upcoming paper running through my mind. That night, as I was sleeping, I had a very vivid dream about what the hook for my English paper should be. In my dream I was talking with my dad, and he suggested that I use my seventh grade teacher, Mr. Dyson as an example and that I could bring in the mnemonic device that Mr. Dyson taught me over thirty years ago. When I woke the next morning I knew what my hook was going to be, and I knew what my theme was going to be.

Today, we got our papers back. Before our teacher handed back our papers, she went over some of the things that the class did right, and some of the things that we still need to work on. As she was talking about the "hook," she said that she wanted to read the class her all time favorite "hook". She told the class that it was the best hook she had read, out of all the classes she is teaching, this was her favorite..."Kings Play Checkers On Fine Grain Sand is a mnemonic device that represents the order of animal classification. This mnemonic stands for Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, and Species. My 7th grade science teacher taught me this saying over thirty years ago, and I remember it after all this time. My science teacher knew how to bring learning to life, and he opened the minds of his students to all kinds of new possibilities." This was MY hook! The hook I dreamed about...literally, my dream was the mnemonic for animal classification, and the influence Mr. Dyson had on my life. Which led me to my theme...how individuals are influenced by their teachers. Again, I was reminded of my dad's continued guidance in my life. Because my hook was so random, and far out there, I KNOW that this was one of those situations where I could not have come up with the theme and hook for my paper on my own. I KNOW it was through my dad, in a dream, that I was inspired to write what I did. So today, with gratitude, I say GREAT JOB GUSTY for another paper well written! All those years ago, you were so great to help Paula out with her essays. She always managed to get an "A" on the essay that the two of you wrote together (and inadvertently so did I, because I copied her essays two years later!) Now I guess it's my turn to be inspired by your brilliance! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

My paper was on the influence a teacher can have on person's life. For me, the greatest teachers in my life have been my parents. I'm so thankful for my mom's patience and selflessness. I'm grateful for the moral lessons that my dad taught me through his stories of "Once upon a time in old Lyman town, there lived a boy named Angus". I'm thankful for the love of a family, and for the gift my family is in my life.

I might seem off my rocker and up in the night for having conversations with my dad. But I dare anyone to tell me I'm imagining his continued presence in my life!