Faces of the Past

      Sarah laid in bed trying to get comfortable. The grilled burger she had for dinner only hours before now was an uncomfortable lump in her stomach, and the early summer air that hung in her bedroom was only worsening the situation. Pushing back the sheet that covered her, she got up went to the bathroom, and on the way back to bed pushed the button on the air conditioner. She knew in a few minutes the room would become more bareable and sleep possibly would follow. She looked at the alarm clock on her dresser, it was eleven o'clock and the night would be over sooner then later. The clock was set for four thirty, she started work at six, without sleep she would have a very bad disposition the next day.

    As Sarah slept she frequently would dream, some of her dreams would include the faces of people who she knew very well but had since passed away. Well, some had, some of the people she drempt about were still alive, but they were people who she had loss contact with over the years. Sarah's dreams started when she was in her twenties. She was married only a few years, she had a daughter, and was trying to establish a realationship between her own parents and her child. Sarah had a close relationship with her grandparents, more strongly between her grandmother(s) then her grandfather(s) , so she didn't really find the dreams that crept into her sleep disturbing, but more of a comfort.

  The first time she had a dream it was of her grandmother, her mother's mother. As she slept she would dream about walking through her grandmother's house. Her grandmother would appear as a black silhouette, she would be sitting in her rocking chair, looking out a window onto the passing street. Sarah was never able to say goodbye to her grandmother, so for years she thought this was the reason her grandmother appeared in her dreams in this form.

    Many years had passed and Sarah's grandmother, on her father's side, was now in her late ninety's. Sarah knew that it would only be a matter of time before her grandmother would pass away. In the later stage of her grandmother's life, her grandmother became ill and could no longer care for herself. Sarah's aunt became her mother's caretaker and for the last few years of her life tended to her grandmother's daily needs. Sarah's grandmother came to her in a dream early one fall morning. Only this time her grandmother was a white silhouette. Her grandmother stood with her grandfather, who passed many years prior, they stood holding hands, in the back yard of the home they once shared. Sarah's father called her early on the morning of her grandmother's death, he said, "Sarah, your grandmother passed away over night." Sarah could only tell her father that she already knew, she said good bye, hung up the phone, and said a small prayer, for the woman who she loved.