In the previous post I talked about how much I loved receiving angel gifts on a Kalei event day. Well, sometimes, when I am really lucky, I am gifted with one out of the blue.

By 2010 I had finished a major project —the landscaping in my backyard. It was now the peaceful and safe sanctuary I had envisioned when I responded to a grief need to avoid as much of the outside world as possible. But the completion of that work and all the free time I now had gave me panic attacks because I had nothing to distract me from thinking about how empty my life felt without Kalei in it. I wanted to fill that emptiness; I needed to fill that emptiness! So off I went…onto another grief-avoidance project!

Over the years I filled my main floor with angel art, statues and well, more angel art, and so on. As this area had not been touched since the house was built, I thought it would be a good idea to renovate and in doing so, compliment my new treasures. I decided to start with the kitchen first.

Just as I did with the yard, I consulted with angel Kalei throughout the design and construction phases. ‘We’ spent hours fussing over what granite design to choose for the island and countertop. In homage to Kalei’s artistic side, I was determined to let her pick the granite. I got that feeling when I first laid eyes on a piece of granite from South America named Maya. I just knew this was Kalei’s pick. When I placed my order, the clerk said, “You are lucky! This particular selection is very hard to get and we only have one slab left!” I smiled at her words thinking now I know for sure angel Kalei had a hand in picking this stone.

Six weeks later, with the kitchen woodwork done, my contractor called the granite company with the countertop measurements. Later that day I received a phone call from him. He said, “Lorene, I am so sorry, but they mixed up the paperwork and sold the same slab of granite to two people. The other customer picked it up a week ago. You will unfortunately have to pick something else.”

Well, that call messed me up pretty badly. I was so sure the spirit of my child had a hand in the choosing, I was not prepared for human failure. Undaunted, I wrote the granite company a letter. In it, I explained that an angel picked out that stone and the angel needed what the angel needed!  Actually the truth is, I wrote a long heart-felt letter that was quite simply, emotionally moving.

A few days later I received a phone call. It was the manager of the granite store. They had talked to the mine owners and told them my story. They promised to take a picture of the next 3 slabs of Maya to come out of the mine and I could choose which one I wanted. They would then ship it here as fast as they could.

When I saw the images, it did not take more than a minute to choose which one ‘we’ wanted. As clear as clear could be, on one of the slabs I saw what looked like a wormhole into another universe. I imagined it could be the passageway between my regular and parallel universes. The decision was an easy one.

Shortly after the install, I was standing in front of my new island admiring — no, that is not correct, in truth I was running my hands over the flow of the rock when my eye caught an image that took my breathe away. Nestled within the intricate pattern of the granite was the image of an angel.

As I stood there I knew I had just been given an angel gift. It was Kalei’s way of saying, “You were right Mom. I was with you all the time.”

That I could not only see the image of an angel, but in a way, the features of my Sweetie Pie, is a gift beyond measure. I hope you feel the same way as I do when you look at it.