Pennies from Heaven

May 15, 2008:
Leaving today for Al's service in New York with his family. This will be the first time I'm meeting his sister, brother, nieces and others. Not the way I wanted to meet them. Unknown to me, at the wake I put together (with help of friends) in L.A., one of my friends passed a basket around to help pay for a ticket to NY. At this point I wasn't even going to go to NY, even though everyone strongly suggested that I do. Not only did she collect enough money for one plane ticket, but for two. (Al was very loved and probably 200+ people showed up at his wake.) I took my friend Lora for support.

As we're standing at a small table next to our departing gate in LAX, waiting to board, Lora went off to get some coffee. While she was gone I had another conversation in my head with Al. I asked him if he could please be with me on the plane. I had a sense of a hesitant, "okay." I realized his family probably needed him more right now. I felt he confirmed that, so I told him it was okay to go and I'd meet him there. I then doubted I was having a conversation with Al and dismissed it as my imagination.

Shortly after that, as Lora came back with her coffee, a man in a dark blue suit, walked right up to our table, put a Canadian penny on the table, and then walked away, all without a word. We both thought it very odd. Then I remembered my friend telling me about the American custom that finding a penny means someone that has crossed over is sending their love. Wow!

May 18, 2008:
Heading back to LA from NY. At JFK, Lora went to find us some bottled water. She returned, eyes wide, saying "you're not going to believe this!" At the kiosk there were NY sweatshirts. She decided she'd buy one for herself. Blue is Lora's color. Blue, Blue, Blue, Blue. However, this day she decided she wanted brown. The large sizes were on the top of the stack of brown sweatshirts; she needed a medium. She dug down to find a medium, and sitting slightly tucked inside the sweatshirt was a penny!

While Lora was away finding pennies, I had been writing in my journal:

"In talking with Al's sister, she told me Al said he finally met someone that gave back. He always talked about me; was always looking for my call [when he was in NY]. She and her daughters were so happy he had finally found someone he could fall in love with. THIS IS SO FUCKING HARD!"