I recently found out my sister-in-law is terminal. My brother told me of an eerie omen.

[A HERETIC I AM]

My oldest brothers wife of nearly 30 years has inoperable tumors on her kidneys and lungs.

This was not entirely unexpected however, as she had a baseball sized tumor removed from her colon a little more than 2 years ago. At that time she underwent Chemotherapy but it made her so sick and miserable she swore she would never go through it again.

This is a woman by the way, that has been a strict Vegan for most of her adult life, has practiced Yoga for a couple of decades (to the point that she is qualified to teach it), an activist for the rights of women, a very left leaning progressive thinker, is very well educated, has a degree in economics, recently earning her Nurse Practitioner certification to become a Midwife and has always been, as long as I have known her, a motivated scholar.

The other day I spent some time with my big brother for the first time in months and for the first time since the most recent diagnosis had been made. He has a 20 acre property in Eastern Lee County and told me the following;

On the day they learned the results of her latest tests and the doctors message that she has, at the most 2 years to live, they went home and talked and cried about it for a couple of hours. My brother said he walked outside by himself to gather his thoughts and looked up.

Circling, right over his house, for perhaps 2 thousand feet up were HUNDREDS of Turkey Vultures.

When he told me that, he began sobbing.

"The birds told me she was going to die" he said.

Chilling.

Cherish every minute you have. Cherish the loved ones you have near you and those you don't, for you never know.

You just never know.

[KittyWampus]

1. Your sister in law sounds like an old soul. Hope you're close enough to your brother

to offer him comfort as best you can.

Peace.

[A HERETIC I AM]

7. She is, Kitty.

And I am and I will.

Thanks.

[seabeyond]

2. hugs to all of you. sounds like she lived and is living life. nt

[A HERETIC I AM]

4. She has and is.

My bro told me that they both agreed they weren't going to cry all the way to her grave, so to speak.

They have planned a trip to Northern California for next month where they will drive the PCH from San Francisco north to Portland, taking in all the Redwood Groves. Something they have wanted to do for a long time.

Thanks for your kind sentiment.

[BanzaiBonnie]

15. I can't think of more holy places to spend

some time.

[seabeyond]

23. ahhhh, my favorite. i got my texas boys out there last spring. took them thru nevada and across at

eurika so we could drive down hwy 1 to san fransisco. the boys loved it. fell in love. want to go back. my next drive will be up oregon to washington and across then back down to texas

that is such beautiful country. it was so green and the stones, looked a little like ireland

[mountainlion55]

25. My sympathies

Please tell them not to miss the Avenue of the giants. Its a drive that has some very awesome sights. :hippie:

[Common Sense Party]

3. My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family.

At least she can go out feeling proud that she lived a good life and benefited society.

[A HERETIC I AM]

6. Thanks, man.

I hope you and yours are well.

I'm on the road again and if I get through Utah, I'll PM ya.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

5. Live life to the fullest, love deeply and often and laugh whenever you can.

A motto to live by.

May your sister in law and your brother fill everyday to their fullest. :hug:

[cmd]

8. I have stage 4 cancer

I know I'm going to die one of these days, but I'm not going to waste time worrying about it. Yeah, it's frustrating when I
can't do some of the things I used to do - I tire easily - but I don't have to blow dry my hair or use a curling iron, I have
a cleaning lady every other week and get lots of love whenever I go out. It's just a part of life. Stay strong.

[myrna minx]

9. .

:hug:

[Lars39]

10. ...

:hug:

[Raine]

12. Sending you positive thoughts ...

:hug:

on edit: I wanted to add that almost a year ago my cousin was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer. The doctor told her she wouldn't live to see last Christmas. At this time she is doing fine and next month ( this May) is going to England with her husband. Stay positive!

[BanzaiBonnie]

16. May peace surround you

[Odin2005]

20. !!!

:hug:

[lumberjack_jeff]

21. This is equal parts wisdom and courage. n/t

[devilgrrl]

24. ...

:hug:

[readmoreoften]

31. Thank you for your courage.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

11. My dear HERETIC...

Boy, do I ever hear you.

I have long felt that you must live every minute and hug your loved ones, both near and far...

I always tell those I love how much I love them, and they appreciate it so much...

My husband and I tell each other this multiple times every day.

You just never know.

Peace and safe passage to your sister-in-law. Hugs for your brother and you...

I hope she passes easily and with all her loved ones there to see her go...

:hug:

[Raine]

13. Good Advice

I'm so sorry what all of you are going and even with that you are thinking about others by sharing. :hug:

[calimary]

14. Aw damn. I'm so sorry to hear this.

And I can totally respect what you said about that omen. I think I would come to the same conclusion if I saw that.

We will keep you and your family closely in our thoughts.

:grouphug:

[A HERETIC I AM]

17. You're very kind. Thanks.

[A HERETIC I AM]

18. And thanks to you all.

I appreciate the kind words.

Thanks everyone.

[Odin2005]

19. My God, I'm so sorry!

:(

[XemaSab]

22. Don't feel like you should have "known"

It's spring. The vultures and the warblers and the tanagers and the grosbeaks and all the other birds are migrating. :pals:

[BlueIris]

26. In certain Native American traditions, turkey medicine is represents deep spirituality.

And many religions throughout world history have claimed that birds help transport the energy of our souls to the afterlife.

Cold comfort for the family at this time, but I think the birds are a positive sign. They will take care of her.

[A HERETIC I AM]

27. Well, it is interesting you say that.

My brother is an honorable member of the Metis.

He took the sign very seriously.

[Yooperman]

28. I hope that your final months together are positive ones....

I have a very similar experience.... I want to share it because I am sure that birds do have a meaning and are sent as a message from the other side.

-----

When my wife and I were first married we immediately found out she was pregnant. We were thrilled of course. However, in the ninth month of her pregnancy our daughter died. She was only 3 weeks from term and we were of course devastated. You see, my wife was a diabetic. We learned much after that pregnancy. About incompetent doctors and the need for us to educate ourselves better.

However, at that time our doctors told us not to even try to have children. That it would be too much of a risk.

So, we took their advice and thought we would live a life together without children or at some point maybe adopt. We were told a tubal litigation would be our best choice. We both agreed however, being without insurance at the time, we put it off. Jump ahead five years. We had relocated to Salt Lake City. We both got jobs and finally had insurance that would pay for the procedure. We made the appointment with a doctor and he gave her a check up and said he would be happy to do it ..BUT

there was no reason that we couldn't have a child. We were stunned. Our doctors in Michigan had told us not to have children and now he was saying go ahead. The reason! The prevailing attitude in Utah to have children is VERY high. Diabetics that should never have children, do anyway. Forcing the doctors in the state to deal with them. He went on to tell us that a pregnancy would be difficult but should be successful. So we didn't have the tubal.

The Doctor was correct..two very...very difficult pregnancies and long premature deliveries...however we ended up with two beautiful daughters. As a liberal... Utah would be the LAST state that I would have chosen to live in...yet circumstances and coincidences put us there. The reason was that we were meant to have two children and the baby doctors at the University of Utah were the best in the world. We also found the people of Utah to be some of the best people we have ever met. I am still a liberal and never did "convert" ..but we made life long friendships.

Our first daughter had been cremated and we actually carried her ashes with us in the sealed plastic container that they had put her in. Once we had our two daughters, we then had my wife's tubal done. We decided it was time for us to bury Adrian. We got a babysitter and drove to Nevada, for that is where we lived when we lost her. We drove miles into a valley somewhere between Wendover and Winnemucca. It was time to put her to rest. We dug a hole and put her in it and covered her.

We looked up and there were owls everywhere. At least 20 or 30 maybe more. All were circling us. It was the most surreal thing that my wife and I have ever experienced. We knew that we now could move on with our life and look forward to our jobs as parents to our two daughters.

I am sorry for the long story..but I had never heard of anything close to this experience until I read your post.

For me it means that there is indeed more to our world than what we realize and understand. Forces beyond this physical place are helping guide us as we move though this life of experiences. As your family is now dealing with this life changing challenge, just know there are others helping you all along the way.

The loss of our first daughter caused an indescribable pain. Yet, I now know that Adrian was helping us prepare for future children.

I will end and forgive me if you feel this post was out of line. I have great compassion for you and your brother's family and I hope that my experience might help all of you in some way. Helping you understand that there is a larger picture that we just can't grasp as a lowly human.

Peace be in your heart.... Love each day in every way.

YM

[Kaleko]

29. Beautiful thread.

You made it even greater by adding your poignant story to it, YM.

What most of us have been taught about death is flatland pedestrian nonsense. Only the body dies, the indweller flies away from it and remains alive in many, many dimensions. Sometimes the birds will tell us this.

[Yooperman]

30. Thank you Kaleko....

I hesitated about telling the story..but it was something that is so fresh in my mind and this happened over 20 years ago. My daughters have grown into wonderful human beings and now are starting their own lifetime of experiences as adults.

On the bird side of things.... when our daughters were in grade school we decided to move back to Michigan to be closer to our families as both of us were from there. We sent the daughters back to family about month before my wife and I, so we could tie up loose ends and pack things up. For the month before we left a pure white dove appeared in our yard. We had never in the 12 years previous seen one there ... yet there it was... almost tame. It would fly to the lowest branches of the tree in our yard and we could almost walk up to it before it took off. We just figured it was a sign that we were doing the correct thing in moving back to Michigan.

I just learned not to judge such things... accept the feelings that they inspire and this was a good feeling.

Looking back... it was indeed the time to move back closer to our families.

Peace...

YM

[A HERETIC I AM]

33. Thank you very much for sharing that story.

While I am generally a skeptic regarding such things, I obviously can not simply ignore the significance of such events, even though they seem to be surreal.

Thanks again for taking the time to write your story.

[Mimosa]

32. Bless you sensitive, great DUers who shared your experiences of the Spirit World

I've always had an idea that birds are messengers of a sort.

[flamingdem]

34. The positive is that this is natural

and the sign is that there is continuity. It doesn't end.

[Carni]

35. Wow how horrible for him!

Sorry to hear this, with that said they could have been circling because of a dead animal in the vicinity (one can hope anyway!)