My best friend, Amanda, was killed in a car accident shortly after dropping me off the day before my birthday. We were very connected.

A few months after her death, I was lying flat on my bed, just staring at the ceiling, something I had never done before. The phone rang in the other room. I got up and answered it. It was Amanda. She just said "I'm OK, but I need you to take care of my dad." I hung up and thought I had gone crazy. I went back to my room and tried to figure out what had just happened.

The next day, my mom ran into Amanda's aunt whom she had known in high school. Amanda had always been told that her birth father wanted nothing to do with her. His sister told my mom how sad he was that she had never responded to any of his cards or letters. I contacted him and let him know that she had never received any of them. I assumed that her mother must have kept them. I think that is what Amanda was talking about when she asked me to help her father.

[Note from John:] Bill and Judy Guggenheim have written a book entitled Hello From Heaven in which they talk about all the different ways in which departed loves ones can get in touch with us. One of them is by the use of the telephone.

Shannon Bracken
4Brackens@comcast.net

Posted Aug. 20, 2004