Proof Our Loved Ones Are Watching Over Us

Often times, after a loved one dies, we try to keep as many memories of them as we possibly can. We often will claim that they are up in heaven looking down at us, but in most cases, we don’t actually have any proof that they are.  We just say it because we pray we will see them again in the afterlife and it makes us feel better to believe it. Today, I have received PROOF that my mom is indeed, still watching over my family. While I am a Christian and I have faith in God, I’m not going to claim that this is PROOF God exists, but I do believe it is proof that my mom is still watching us.

Today at 8:37am, I was awoken by a text message from my brother. The text was to inform me of what you’re seeing in the photo above. My aunt, uncle, and cousin’s house caught fire overnight and was pretty much destroyed. From the info I was given, the fire began in the family room by the fire place. I’m not sure EXACTLY what happened, but I’m assuming that they had a fire going earlier, it was still smoldering, a log popped and hot embers blew all over the carpet causing it to ignite. I may be way off base on that assumption, but the general ruling is that the fire began in that room near/in the fireplace.

My aunt, uncle and cousin were lucky to make it out as their bedrooms are all upstairs. The master bedroom sits right above the family room and the stairs down back up against it. No smoke detectors were going off as far as I know, but my uncle was awoken to the crackling of the flames. They had very little time to save their belongings and escaped with their pets, pajamas, shoes and socks, and that’s about it. They also managed to get their vehicles and my uncle’s Harley out of the garage, which is attached to the family room on one side. The flames were so hot that they melted the fence around their backyard in 3 different places.

Fast forward to later this morning, I receive another text from my brother letting me know the extent of the damage. The house is possibly a total loss. The left side of the house is worse than expected. The fire pretty much burned everything up and melted much more. The right side of the house wasn’t burned up, however, it was so waterlogged from the fire department that it may still be a total loss. That’s up to the insurance company now.

So what does all this have to do with proof that our loved ones are watching over us?

My aunt had a lot of stuff to remember my mom by…all of which should have been lost in the fire. She had one photo of her she specifically wanted that was destroyed, HOWEVER, the bear my mom made out of some old pajamas that was sitting on the mantle of the fireplace was undamaged. Soaking wet from the fire department, but undamaged. Everything else in the room…black. It looked like charcoal.

We also had some purple “dog tags” made for our Relay for Life team in memory of my mom that we wear at the Relays each year. They’re just cheap metal tags that say “In Loving Memory of Sheri L. Blackshire” with her birthdate and the date of her death on there. That tag was hanging from the railing on the stairs. Everything around it, black and burned up similar to the family room. The tags…completely undamaged. Both of those items should have melted/burned up due to the extreme heat of the fire, but they didn’t. Most of the photos of my mom, aside from the one above the fireplace that burned up were also salvageable I believe. Their frames were busted up, but the photos are still okay.

Some may argue that there’s a perfectly good explanation for that stuff not burning up…but I honestly don’t believe there’s any logical explanation. Not when every item around it is destroyed. That seems awful coincidental, don’t you think? Especially when it happened twice with items holding the same meaning.

I believe that was a message from my mom…giving my aunt, uncle, and cousin the strength to deal with having to rebuild their house and replace all that was lost in the fire, while accepting that some things just can’t be replaced. You know that while they’re extremely upset with the loss, that when they saw that bear and that dog tag sitting there, they couldn’t help but smile and realize my mom was watching over them and protecting them last night.