Recently I asked for blog topics and I promised to respond to them. 🙂

So for today’s post, I’m going to try to answer Clenna’s request:

“I’d love to hear about connections with ones who have passed on.”

Well, Clenna, I have always liked to think that the people we love continue to watch over us after they have passed on. I can mention a couple of experiences that I have had . . .

My grandmother was born and raised in Ireland but came to America as a young woman. When my siblings and I were growing up, she delighted us with wonderful stories of her childhood. Nana died many years ago. Some time later, my sister and I made a trip to Ireland to visit my daughter who was studying in Dublin. One of the highlights of the trip was our journey to visit Nana’s childhood home. I was thrilled that I was finally going to be able to see not only the country, but the townland, and even the farm that Nana had told us so much about.

During the long drive from Dublin to the beautiful southwest coast, we had an unexplainable feeling that she was with us. As we continued on, we began to see road signs that told us we were getting close to the farm. I’ll never forget the incredible sense of love and warmth we felt as we came to the top of a hill – just at the town line – and saw before us a breathtaking rainbow! It had to be Nana welcoming us. The timing was too perfect. It was the only rainbow we saw during the entire trip.

My mother-in-law was a sweet and generous woman who loved her family above all else.

She was also what I would describe as a “cookie lady” – someone who is famous for making and giving delicious cookies to family and friends.

Several months back, I wrote a post (see it here) about her being a cookie lady and even included one of her recipes. Then I realized something amazing . . .

The idea for that post had been on my “blog topics” list. Why I chose that particular day to talk about “cookie ladies” and my sweet mother-in law, I’ll never really know. It was not planned for that day . . . I just looked at my list and grabbed a topic. I could have written about it weeks earlier or weeks later. I could have chosen any other topic on that list that day.

As soon as I finished the post – it hit me!!!!!

It was her 100th birthday! I hadn’t remembered it until that very second!!!

It seems so appropriate and also an amazing coincidence that I would talk about her on her special day! I think she must have somehow “wanted” me to share her recipe!