Finding Hope Through A Butterfly

Our mom passed away in November, 2006, after a battle with Alzheimer’s.  And although my sisters and I were sad, we were prepared.  We had already lost her to the disease, and we were relieved that she was no longer fighting a mental disorder she knew nothing about.  Our mom was in a better place.  

The three of us were all we had left from our immediate family of five people.  My oldest sister Nancy and I agreed that mom was finally at peace, and we were content with that.  Our middle sister Betty took mom’s passing the hardest – she prayed for a sign that would give her a glimmer of hope that mom was safe and in a better place. 

The day after the funeral Betty returned to the gravesite to retrieve the flowers from the service.  We had originally asked the staff from the funeral home to divide the floral arrangements into small bunches to be given to the residents of the nursing home where our mother had lived.  But the funeral staff forgot our request and left the flowers at the gravesite.  

All of us wanted the flowers to provide enjoyment to other people rather than being left to just wither away.  So, after the kitchen nursing home staff agreed to divide the flowers and pass them out to the residents, Betty decided she would get them and deliver them to their new home.

The weather was unusual that week in November – the temperatures were in the 80’s in normally chilly Rhode Island.  When Betty arrived to retrieve the flowers, she noticed a lot of bees, not only on the flowers but flying around them.  She figured she could just shoo them away and snatch up the flowers without getting stung.  The bees forced her to leave the flowers behind. 

Discouraged she could not complete our good deed, she walked back to her car.  As she was leaving, she took one last glance at the gravesite just in time to see a beautiful yellow butterfly that she said appeared out of nowhere. 

“It flew down out of the sky and landed on top of the flowers and just sat there,” she said.  Her heartfelt excitement was clear.  Nancy and I knew that butterfly was a heavenly sign and, even better, it was answering our sister’s prayer.  Mom did make it to a peaceful place.  And because of that simple error made by the funeral parlor that butterfly became a symbol of hope for all of us. 

Two years after that butterfly sighting, I decided to plant a butterfly bush in my yard in honor of my mom.  My first encounter with a yellow and black butterfly proved to be one more sign that mom was not only at peace but that she was still close by, watching over all of us.

My mom’s family was French Canadian and we all grew up knowing this.  But what we did not know was that this yellow and black butterfly had a very specific name.  Believe it or not, each year since planting my butterfly bush, at least one Canadian Tiger Swallowtail butterfly will come and visit my yard.  Sometimes it will visit every day and sit on one of the butterfly branches enjoying the nectar.  Other years it will fly by me only once, just in time to be noticed.

Since 2008, my mom’s butterfly has never missed being noticed by me or coming to my yard for a spring or a summer visit.  It is something I look for and count on seeing.   

Five years ago, I planted another butterfly bush for our sister Nancy.  She also left us for a better place after a long battle with cancer.  And while Betty and I both miss her dearly - we knew she was OK.    

The summer after she died, on her birthday, a beautiful orange and black Monarch butterfly came to visit and sat on her butterfly bush.  And each year, without fail, her Monarch butterfly comes to visit. I look forward to her visit as well.

Sometimes I get to see my Nancy’s butterfly flying next to my mom’s butterfly. And other times the Monarch will make itself known to me by flying directly in front of me all by itself.  And while I have always dreamed about signs from heaven because I believed in them, the more I see signs like these, the more I notice other heavenly signs. 

If you would like to read more about signs from heaven, please read the next story Heart- Shaped Love From Heaven.