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Honestly, I was stunned to receive an e-mail with “When Tomorrow Starts Without Me” on the same
day I had read about the Moore family’s loss, and I was shaken up by the first two sentences of the last stanza:
So when tomorrow starts without me,
Do not think we’re far apart,
For every time you think of me,
I’m right here, in your heart.
Here is why I reacted as I did:
My daughter’s friend, Frank, told her that he had seen her father.
Frank said her father was high above us
As I led my children singing his favorite song – “We shall overcome” –
At my husband’s funeral service several years ago.
Frank said he was big and healthy and was sitting atop the green plants.
He wore a huge smile as he looked down at us.
But Frank, puzzled, asked my daughter
Why her father wasn’t wearing his glasses.
He pointed at one of the pictures displayed at the service;
Her father had glasses on in that photo.
Frank had seen my husband only once,
While he was in the intensive care unit.
So Frank couldn’t have known whether he normally wore glasses or not.
Because my husband did not usually wear glasses,
I knew then that Frank had seen him in a vision.
The picture had been taken at his laboratory;
He had put the glasses on simply to read a scientific article.
Frank’s vision gave me a lot of comfort.
I knew my husband had been set free from his illness and is again healthy now.
Three years later, I went to a temple an hour away from my home.
After the service,
The minister asked if any of us would like to receive messages.
I had no clue what this was all about.
Seeing people raising their hands,
I decided to participate.
She told us what she saw around us, one by one,
It seemed she had a gift for receiving information from invisible guides.
When it was my turn, she told me there was a scholar standing behind me,
He did not want to be close enough to bother me,
But kept a little distance from me.
He was there to protect me and guide me for many years.
She continued, and said that he was not Japanese but Chinese.
I knew immediately that she was talking about my husband.
I was awed by her description,
Because it was my first time to be in that temple,
And she did not know my original nationality.
When I read this poem-
“So when tomorrow starts without me,
Don’t think we’re far apart, “
It reminded me of these incidents.
I finally grasped it …
That, physically, my husband has left me,
Yet, he’s here with me in spirit,
And we are not far apart.
Yes, indeed we and our loved ones are never far apart.
