Dream Visit from Mom

Rumour had it that Kew beach was an old sunken treasure site, and that treasure had been found. The remains of a seventeenth century merchant vessel with valuable cargo aboard had sunk beneath its frigid waters. A team of divers hired from Blue Waters Scuba Diving Company had gathered at the shore and were assembling their equipment. Four scuba divers approached the cold waters of the sea and started to walk into the water. The crowd talked and laughed quietly among themselves as the hours slipped by, waiting for the treasure to be brought up.

At last the divers were seen in the distance, far out to sea. Finally, they were within sight and it was clear that they had found something. Between them was a seventeenth century chest made of cedar, it was clamped with large and ornamental brass bands and hinges.

Between them they lugged the chest out of the water and put it on the sandy shore. I stood with the other spectators to await the treasure the divers had retrieved. Everyone took a turn looking into the treasure chest. When my turn came I opened the box and looked inside, and saw gold coins lying on the top layer of the box. I noticed that the box had another drawer below the first, and so I lifted the handle of the first level to peer at the bottom, which held little trinkets of pearls, necklaces, bracelets, gold elephants, and all manner of other golden animals. I sifted my hands through the jewelry and then replaced the first drawer back in place where the gold coins lay.

Suddenly my mother appeared at the shore and came over to where I was standing. I knew she was dead in the dream and as I looked at her I thought she looked remarkably well, younger in fact; She had no gray hair, as she did in later years. It was the same dark colour I remembered from my youth and the same old hairstyle she had worn for forty years.

She was holding a binder of some kind. I took the binder from her and opened it up, looked inside and saw blue ink handwritten pages. The whole binder was full of writing, like she was taking a course. I didn't look closely at what she had written, for manners sake, only rifled through the pages thinking that even in heaven they take notes, like they're in a class. I did not ask her what she was taking though.

She then said to me, 'can I talk to you for a minute, away from everybody,' and I said yes.

I led my mother away from the shore where everyone had mingled to admire the treasure, to another section of the beach where some tall rushes stood. We stood among the rushes in this quiet area. She looked around to make sure we were alone, then turned to me and said, 'I have bad news to tell you. Bob is dead."

In my dream I started to cry, and wail, and crying I woke myself up. I realized that I had been whimpering out loud. I was stunned because the dream was so real. My first thought upon waking was, "oh no! Bob is dead". Then I thought, "that isn't right, he is not dead, she is".

Weeks went by when I got a call from my son in the middle of the night, he was extremely upset. He was crying and sobbing as he relayed the chilling news.
"Dad is in the hospital, I think he has had a stroke, he doesn't know me." He was making choking noises and sobbing out the words. My heart lurched at these strange words, but I managed to calm him down. He then was able to tell me what hospital in Toronto his father was in. After hanging up the phone, the dream visit from my mother, flashed into my mind. Was this what she meant in the dream?

He put the doctor on the line and I spoke to him for a few minutes. The doctor was under the impression, he had been found on the street. This was not true. Another colleague had found him in the basement of Bad C. He had been found not in the best hygienic condition, but scruffy looking. He asked me if he had a place to live. I said yes, he lives in a small apartment in Toronto and he is associated with Bad C. (Black action defense committee). "He is no bum, despite whatever condition you found him in." I told the doctor.

Because of the condition that he was in when he got to the hospital, the staff of the hospital assumed he was a street person, with unkempt clothes, untidy hair and beard. After notifying the hospital that he was a member of Black Action Defense, they threatened to hold a demonstration in front of the hospital if he was not treated soon. At this time he had been left alone for more than twelve hours.

It took a threat from the Black community for the hospital, attitude and all, to administer treatment, but there were no more delays after that. When word got out in the community that a member of Bad C was hospitalized, the hospital was flooded with visits from other prominent members of the Black Community as well as Bad C. The hospital told him that he had more visitors than any other patient they had seen in a very long time.

My ex-husband suffered two anerisms, two operations and the loss of his left eye. But after some rehabilitation he is back on the road to good health. He resides today in the Toronto area.

We were at the time and still are good friends today. He barely pulled through this illness, if not for the support of his friends and relatives he might not have made it.

I believe my mother came to warn me through a dream that my ex-husband was about to experience a near death episode, and to prepare myself for his possibly leaving this earth.

When I see my mother in dreams, it means she comes to warn me about distressing situations that are about to enter my life. Her presence in my dreams has come to mean, 'prepare thy self'.