Could it be?

This morning, Marc had something to tell me. "Last night, I had the strangest dream," he began. Being the perennial smartass that I am, I immediately said, "you sailed away to China, in a little rowboat to find me?" This didn’t even slow Marc down—after all, he’s used to my silliness.

In fact, he sounded quite serious—not in a "something's wrong" kind of way, but he was not going to have his story derailed. No, he said he had dreamed that we got home and there was a message on the machine. It was my Mom. She said she and my Dad had been on a trip to Nashville and had a good time there, and she wanted us to know that they were fine.

Marc said it all seemed very real. He even said that her voice was like it had been years ago, before the cancer that would eventually kill her did nerve damage that made her voice somewhat raspy. But no, she sounded like the Mom of years ago, happy and healthy.

I know how Fiddler on the Roof this sounds, taking the dreams of one’s spouse as real messages from beyond the grave. Still, I wonder if it really could be. Nashville would be the kind of place they might go to have some fun, since they both liked music so much. Of course, Marc knows this, so was his mind playing tricks on him?

I did ask him one question—"Marc, do you know what kind of music Mom liked to play in her car?" "No," he said. "She liked all music, but she usually had the news on when I was in the car with her."

He’s right that she liked all kinds of music, but, most often, she played country music in the car. She liked country music, and I bet she’d enjoy a trip to Nashville. Marc didn’t know that piece of it.

Oh, one last tidbit—the "message" came right between the Jewish calendar and regular calendar one-year anniversaries of her death. Right smack in the middle.

So was that really a message from her? Obviously, there’s no way I can know, but it's the kind of message my Mom would leave. Just something to say they were together, were having fun and were alright. I sure hope it really was her. I really do.