50

1. Two winters ago my grandmother was diagnosed with liver cancer and it spread to her brain. Once cancer spreads to the brain, it is terminal. My family lived in St. Louis at the time, and my mother was able to get time off work for two months in order to help out my grandmother with daily things and just to spend as much time with her as possible. I was getting ready to move back to Iowa, and figured I could come help out with things and look for a job on the side as well.
   
   Anyways, there was a hospital bed in my grandmother's living room and my mom put a baby monitor in both of their rooms so she could hear if my grandma needed anything. During the last few weeks my grandma was extremely weak (as you'd expect) and would fall asleep around 7 PM. One night when my mother was getting ready to go to bed, she heard my grandmother start talking into the monitor. Concerned that she needed something, my mom listened more closely but heard her having a discussion with someone. The dialogue went something like this:
   
   "No, it's not my time. Not just yet, I need to say goodbye to everyone. She's doing a great job, she's helped me out on so many levels. I miss you so much, we'll see each other soon."
   
   The "she" that my grandmother was referring to obviously had to be my mother. The suspicion was that my grandma was talking to my grandfather, who had passed away a few years before hand. When my mother told me this story, she said she felt as though my grandpa was annoyed that my mother was listening and suddenly the baby monitor just went to static.
   
   
   The same day she told me this story, my mom went to a grocery store to get some things and told me to make sure to have the baby monitor on high volume in case my grandmother needed anything. I normally hung out in the basement and was watching TV when all of a sudden I heard my grandmother start mumbling. The mumbling started forming words and it sounded like she was having another discussion. I remember the dialogue very distinctly.
   
   "I miss you sweetheart, I can't wait to see you. I'll be okay, just give it time. Jesse's in the basement right now. He's listening to us".
   
   The moment I heard that I freaked out and turned off the monitor. There was no way she could have known that I was in the basement or even listening to her, since she had been asleep before my mother left and after she got back too.
   
   The last time we got to see my grandmother before she passed away was in a nursing home. My mother and grandmother were both crying, as they knew it would be the last time they'd see each other. My mom asked my grandmother if she had been talking to my grandfather. She stared into the room ahead of her, while tears filled her eyes and she gently nodded and said "I knew you knew".