I Had A Sign From The Spirit World - My Auntie Sent It To Me Just After She Died

My Mum died of cancer when I was only 6 years old. After she died one of her sisters, my Auntie Marion, used to come over to clean our house and help look after us on her day off from work.

I often say us or we instead of me because I have a twin sister and as little girls even though we sometimes fought like cat and dog we came as a pair, and I can´t think of myself in childhood as just me . So you will please have to excuse the us´s and we´s and Me´s.

I loved auntie Marion so much. She was kind and loving and always smelled lovely. Like my Mam she had a way about her of making everyday things seem really special. A good thing to have in those days when money was scarce and you had a big family.

I remember once throwing a paddy because I wanted a Banana sandwich for my tea but we only had jam. Auntie Marion didn´t bat an eyelid but instead explained that the Queen would love to eat jam sandwiches for her tea but unfortunately that wasn´t allowed in Buckingham palace. Of course this then made my plate of Jam sandwiches seem something really grand and delicious, and the banana sandwich was forgotten.

Except for my eldest sister. Auntie Marion was in effect the only Mother figure we had for quite a number of years. Both me and my twin looked forward so much to her regular Tuesday visits and often would go and wait for her bus to arrive at the village stop. When it did we would see her big beautiful smile and she would hug us both tightly to her, before walking us home hand in hand.

Eventually my Dad found someone and fell in love. When he got married auntie Marion stopped coming to our house. It was devastating and no one explained why. In those days I suppose it wasn´t the done thing to discuss such things with children, the feeling being that children just bounce back, and in a way they do, but not without consequences, believe me.

I have no idea why we were not taken to visit auntie Marion occasionally after she felt she could no longer come to our house. But at least I managed to get an address when I grew up and was able to contact her.

It was lovely to know where she was and that she was still alive. I longed to see her but something was holding me back. Maybe self preservation or I was still hurting from her abandonment I just can´t tell you why.

We started to correspond and also talk on the phone occasionally. I moved quite a bit after leaving home at 17, eventually getting married and moving to the south coast of England. But we kept in touch. It was lovely to get her letters. They always cheered me up and made me laugh. She had a real old sense of humour, and a chuckle that would set anyone laughing with her.

I remember going back to Yorkshire to visit relatives, when I lived in Bognor Regis, and found that my twin had made arrangements for us both to go and visit auntie Marion. My daughter was with us too. I still felt really nervous about actually seeing her as it had been years by this time since I had, and even though we had kept in touch, it´s not the same as actually being with someone. What if the visit was strained and we ran out of things to say to each other ? What if actually meeting her for the first time in an age after wanting to for so many years didn´t go well, or felt like an anti climax ? I needn't have worried so much because the first thing we did was have a great big hug and a cry and then sit down for a cuppa and chat.

We had a couple of lovely hours together before it was time to leave. I knew it was unlikely that I would see her again because of the distance between where we lived. But at least I´d seen her at long last. And that did count for a lot.

In 2002 my husband and I moved to Spain to start a new life. We were really happy here but just 3 months into our " New Life" I could see my lovely husband wasn´t well and it turned out he had incurable lung cancer. Despite 18 months of intensive treatment it spread and he died in 2004. He does remain with me in spirit though, and for that I am truly grateful.

During all this time and after he died, auntie Marion did her best to keep me going with letters and occasional long phone calls.

I learned a lot about her in this time and discovered she really did believe in angels. She told me often that my own Mam had seen one when she was a child. And always to call upon my guardian angels when I needed help. She said she did this all the time and they never let her down. She also sent me a book on guardian Angels.

In 2010 I got a phone call to say auntie Marion had been found unconscious at her flat and taken into hospital . The doctors thought she had suffered a stroke at first and things weren´t looking good.

The next day I had another call to say she had regained consciousness and had been able to talk, but not to get my hopes up because it wasn´t a stroke she had suffered but a burst bowel, and there was nothing that could be done, except keep her comfortable and out of pain until she passed away.

She died the next day.

I was devastated when I got the news of her death and cried for day´s. I knew she was out of pain and no longer suffering. But I wanted it not to be true, I wanted her back. I´d lost enough people I loved and this just wasn´t fair.

The circumstances of her death were also really upsetting. How long had she been unconscious in her flat before she was found? Had she suffered? Had she been in pain a long time and kept it to herself? It was awful thinking all these things and knowing there would be no more cheerful letters from her. She had gone and that was it.

Except it wasn´t.

A few days after she died, my dogs were going mad for me to take them for a walk. It was a really hot day and I didn´t feel much like walking about in the heat, but they were so insistent, that I had to.

My mind was stuffed with thoughts about auntie Marion´s death as the dog´s and I started our walk, and I had that awful feeling you have of deep sadness and what feels like an obstruction inside your chest, that comes with grief.

We hadn´t gone far, when we rounded a bend in the track and I could see something white ahead of me, laying on the ground.

As we got closer I could see it was a White feather.. which I know is a sign of an angels visit.

The moment I saw and picked up this feather, a huge weight lifted off my shoulders and a big grin spread across my face.

Auntie Marion knew I would know the significance of this feather in my path, and I felt she had arranged for it to be there so I would know she had got to where she was going, and was happy.

All I could do was look up to the sky and say " Thank you auntie Marion " Because now I knew she was ok.

I do believe we have guardian Angels looking out for us. I´m not so sure about the whole wings and halo bit. I tend to think of them as our loved one´s in the spirit world, coming back to help us when we need them.

Just before and after auntie Marion´s death, a lot of pigeons had for some reason started flying up to where I live and landing in a tree next to the house. That in itself was a bit odd as it had never happened before and I had lived here for 10 years.

Undoubtedly the feather I found came from one of those pigeons, but why a white feather instead of a brown or grey one? And why directly in my path just after she died ?

For me the only explanation was, it was arranged to fall where it did, and be the colour it was, because auntie Marion knew I would understand exactly what it meant.

I was unable to attend auntie Marion´s funeral, but was asked by another niece if there was anything I would have liked to say at the service had I been there. I sent an email about her strong belief in Angels and me finding this white feather and what I felt about it. The entire, long message was read out by the vicar conducting the service with such glee apparently, that he too must have thought the same as me.

In Memory of my dear auntie Marion- She couldn´t half make me laugh- I miss you love x