Grandfather’s Last Hug

Witness: Kathy Ludwig
Location: Franklin County, Massachusetts
Date of Encounter: June 24, 2017

I had a real breakthrough dream last night. My grandfather came to me and gave me a big hug and told me that he was sorry how he behaved the last time we saw each other. In real life, the last time I saw him, I had gone to visit him and my grandmother with my daughter (who was still a baby at the time and is now 21). I was estranged from my mother then, and my grandfather (my Mom’s dad) had tried to convince me to just make up because “life’s too short.” He did not understand or support my need for space from her then. On every other visit before that last one, he would give me a big hug goodbye. That last visit he did not. It was his way of telling me that I was not welcome to visit as long as I had this feud with my Mom. It broke my heart. He died a couple of years later. I sent him a short get well card when he was sick, but never saw him in person again. For him to show up in my dreams like that to say he was sorry and to give me a big hug is so healing. It makes me think that he and my Mom (who passed in March 2016) had a conversation with each other about how I might need a visit like that, and that I would receive it well through a dream because I told my Mom, as she was dying, to visit me in my dreams. When I woke up this morning, I was almost instantly in heaving sobs over this. Like a huge weight had been lifted. I’m still processing the enormity of this dream.