Very strange events last night...

Last night was the first night in three weeks that I have been on my own, after two weeks at my mom's house in the US and then the week long visit of Styopa in Prague. To say the least it was, um, interesting. Let me relay the three interesting (at least to me) things that happened between midnight and 7:00 a.m.

First, I was asleep in bed when I felt someone touch my leg and say "Al". It was a female voice so I assumed it was Kathy. It was a very real sensation, and I woke up right away expecting Kathy to be there standing over me. I looked to the right side of my bed (the side the leg that was touched was) and there was no one there. I then looked to the left and the rest of the bedroom and, of course, no one was in the room. I also noticed that my bedroom door was closed. In a second I realized that Kathy and Noah were still in the States and decided it was just a dream, no matter how real it felt. I fell back to sleep.

Then I had a dream about walking down the street with Tony Soprano, from the TV show "The Sopranos". I had just watched the final episode on the computer last night just before bedtime so it was fresh in my mind. Anyway, as Tony and I were walking we were both laughing and talking. I don't know what was being said except for the fact that we were both happy and I called him "dad" several times. The character of Tony Soprano is my age, so it seemed strange calling him dad, but I did.

Now, the third and especially weird thing. Just as I am in this dream, walking down the street with Tony Soprano and laughing and me calling him dad, I am woken up again. This time by sounds out in the hall outside my bedroom. I open my eyes and I can see that it's morning and I roll over in my bed to look that way - toward my door that goes out into the hall. I looked just in time to see the closed bedroom door swing open. It didn't open just a crack, but wide, like someone was walking through. I had every expectation that someone would actually walk through the door after it opened - but no one did. Surprisingly, I was not afraid by this strange occurance, especially considering the other things that had happened before.

What does it mean? Maybe nothing. The first dream, about being touched, could have been just that - a dream. The second dream, about Tony Soprano, isn't that surprising given that I had just watched the final episode of The Sopranos several hours before. The last thing, the door opening, is a little tougher to explain. But is possible that with the windows open there was a breeze or something that pushed (or sucked) the door open.

What do I think it means? Well, I don't know if this is a common belief, and I don't think it is, but I believe that the recently deceased can and do sometimes send messages to those left behind, usually to let them know that despite what you are feeling everything is OK. I am convinced I received messages from my late wife, Debbie, in the form of especially vivid dreams that I had a little over a year after her death. In the last one, after I moved to Saudi Arabia in 1991, she came to my villa door and when I opened she just stood there for a minute and then walked away. Although there were no words exchanged I strongly sensed the message was "I'm OK where I am and I'm going away now, so you have to get on with your life". These dreams had a very different feel to regular dreams and were very vivid and hard to forget (as opposed to most dreams that are hard to remember). While Debbie would be in future dreams, none of them were of this heightened awareness type.

My dad passed away in March, a little more than four months ago. Was he sending a signal that he is OK where he is and for us not to worry? The character of Tony Soprano is a gangster and a very bad guy, but he is an authority figure, and in the last last scene of the last episode he waits in a diner as his family - wife, son and daughter - join him one by one. The show ends as the last member of the family arrives at the restaurant. Except that this is The Sopranos, the scene is very normal and shows a close, happy family.

What about being woken up by a touch on the leg and a woman calling my name? I don't know, but besides Deb I also lost a sister to cancer many years ago. Could it hve been one of them? If my theory about messages from the departed is subscribed to, it could have been a way to be told to pay attention, because something was going to happen.

Even if it wasn't a message from my dad, it was at least some significant event in my subconscious. I will have to think on it some more. But I hope that tonight I don't dream, and I may lock the bedroom door.