Eight Difficult Deaths:

Audrey February 1995

My dear friend Harriet called in tears. She was in the Midwest for her aunt’s funeral. Audrey was a relative of Harriet’s, an elderly woman who lived by herself with just a beloved dog for company. Unfortunately, one day she had a bad fall and lay hurt and helpless for more than a day. Finally someone found her and took her to the hospital. When she got out, she took her little dog, went to her garage, put a hose running from the exhaust into her car, got in and turned on the engine. Audrey died there, holding her pet in her arms. 

No wonder Harriet was upset! As I listened to her, feeling her shattered heart, I remembered something from my morning meditation. At that time I was exploring a Medicine Card deck which uses Native American wisdom, drawing a card and reflecting on it. I had drawn the Raven card, which talked about “in absentia” healing, and warned me to be aware that some new opportunity outside my beaten paths might present itself. Suddenly inspired, I shared this with Harriet and suggested we meditate together, sending healing to her aunt. Harriet has been a practitioner of Buddhist meditation for years, and was very open to the idea. We set a time to start and finish and agreed that she would then call me.

The strongest image I got was not of Audrey in the car dying, but Audrey lying on the floor in pain. I began work on her, trying to surround her with healing energy. It seemed there was something going on with her feet - at one point I felt like I was taking off some badly fitting shoes. At least one other person appeared to help and participate. They felt like angels. One of them may have been Harriet. There was a lot of detail and I can’t remember it all, but gradually Audrey seemed to shift, relax, and open. She became a glowing, bright orb of light, like a jewel on a necklace.
The last image I had was of a raven flying down, taking the necklace in his beak and flying away with it.

Harriet called - I felt the temperature drop just before the phone rang. She had found herself with Audrey in the car. She was drawn to connect with the unconditional, deep love in the bond between Audrey and her dog, and to focus on it. She had the sense of surrounding the two of them with that deep caring and warmth. Harriet felt her aunt’s death happen within a cocoon of love and safety. Her last image was of two irises - a flower she always associated with Audrey - one little - Audrey’s pet - and one big - Audrey herself. A raven flew down and plucked the larger one, flying away with it.