Is that my sister? Still hanging around?

If you look closely, you can spy the back of a turkey just beyond our window.

Seeing turkeys is not unusual around here. In fact, we see them often.

But this one was alone, which is a little unusual, and more to the spooky point about appearances from the dead, this one showed up right after I’d run through a couple of internal questions about my sister.

My sister, as you know, died in 2019. In the immediate aftermath of her passing I asked for some sign of her (as one does) and what appeared was a lone turkey in a tree top just up the street. It was so startling, I blogged about it: Signs, March 31, 2019.

In the hour prior to this present day bird’s appearance, I’d been doing a silly exercise — posing yes/no questions before a solitaire game and reading a win as a “yes” and a loss as a “no.” Am I the only one who indulges in low-key divination attempts like this?

Anyway, first I asked: Is Noreen still around?

Yes. (But I knew this). See posts about shattered Pyrex here. The painting falling like a guillotine in Los Angeles, here.

Second, I asked: Do I need to ask her to leave?

Also, Yes.

Well then!

We leave for Rome on Monday. The last time I traveled there was right after my sister died. There had been a mad dash to empty her apartment and square her finances before boarding a plane. I wasn’t panicked about time but it wasn’t exactly cathartic either. Friends helped.

I wonder if that’s part of why she is on my mind today.

I’m allowing myself to imagine what that might feel like. Breathing. Combine that with getting a book 12 or more years in the making out (this summer, I hope) and I may not recognize myself. Burdens set down.