Dreams - Part II

In College, I had this Latin teacher. His name was Romanelli. He was older than most of our teachers and he was a very nice person..

Latin was a subject that nobody really enjoyed or was good at, except for a young classmate that came from a seminary. For him, latin was obviously easy.

Professor Romanelli either understood that we had too many other more interesting subjects in our minds, or he was already sick and tired of teaching. He was not very demanding, and gave us certain grades that most of us knew we did not deserve.

Coincidentaly, through a friend, I came to meet his daughter from his first marriage. A wonderful lady that I still love lots, although I haven't heard from her for a long time. Liliane was an artist and worked illustrating children's books.

Time goes by, I finished College and started working.

One week-end, I was watching TV and saw the news of a car accident on the south of the country that had killed three people. Professor Romanelli, his second wife and (if I recall) one of his daughters from that marriage.

I was devastated! Altough I had never met his second wife, or his two new daughters, the news hit hard. I could not believe it! I could only think of that man that was so gentle to us all. Dying that way was not what one would imagine - ever.

The feeling of sorrow would not go away. I even spoke to my mom about it. It felt like I was hurt too much, you know what I mean? Yes, you feel sorry and all, but when things start hurting deep, one wonders. Why? He was a teacher. He was gentle. He was Liliana's father. But, at the same time, I had never had a conversation with him, except for any question in class. I was not friends with him at all!

Of course I contacted Liliana and gave her my support. She told me that he had been taken to the hospital still alive, but when they told him his wife and one daughter had died, he passed away. As if he had given up.

I thought it was a cruel thing that they told him and that added to my sadness about his passing. The idea of him being so sad as to give up on life. Or, at least, so I thought and felt.

Time went by. And I still kept on thinking about him. I prayed for him and tried to forget the subject. But could not.

One night I had a dream. I dreamt I was in the elevator at the college building. When I looked on my side, there he was. It was Professor Romanelli. Smilling at me. I knew I was dreaming and knew he had already died. And I was amased to see him. He just stood there, lightly smiling at me, holding on to the side walls of the elevator, as if he needed to support himself.

- Professor Romanelli... I am so sorry for what happened to you. I said to him. And I started crying.

He let go of one side wall, reached out to me, touched me on my shoulder a little and said he was OK. And he looked deep into my eyes. He said nothing else but I knew he meant it. And I stopped crying.

An imense feeling of peace came to me, a sensation of calmness and serenity. He disappeared. I woke up.

And all that feeling of sadness had just plain disappeared. As if it had never happened.

Life went on. I do not remember what I did the next days, but I do remember that there was no longer any sadness. If I thought of him - and I did - there was a certainty that everything was fine. Quite strange.

I also do not remember how long after that night, but one day, Liliane (his daughter) phoned me and asked me to come to her house. I did. She was in her studio, working. And we sat together and talked. I enjoyed being with her a whole lot.

In the middle of our girly talks, she said:

- I have something I want to ask you.
- Sure. What is it?
- Did you have a dream with my dad? Would you, please, tell me about it?

I almost fell off the bar stool I was sitting on!!

And she continued:

- I've been suffering a huge lot about my dad's passing. His separation from my mom was a bit complicated for us, and now that he is gone, I cannot find peace inside me. Well, I went to talk to one of his old friends...

Here, she made a pause and explained to me that her dad was a studious Spiritualist and that he had written books about the subject. (! I had no idea !)  He had a group of friends that were very close to him and also Spiritualists like him. And she continued:

- I needed to talk to someone about him. So, as I said, I went to one of his friends to ask what he could tell me about my dad. This man told me that my dad had "contacted" one of my lady friends in a dream, and that I should call her and ask her about it. 

- And why did you call ME??

- I don't know. Something told me it was you.

So I told her. My emotions were all stirred up and the two of us started crying.

Liliana then asked me exactly where had I "seen" her father. For a moment, I could not understand what she meant, but she explained:

- Where was he exaclty. Describe the scene of your dream.

When I described the elevator, and the walls that he seemed to be hanging on to, she said:

- So, it is true!

She then explained to me that, for a person that died and is in the "other dimension" (if one wants to call it like this) to appear to someone in "our dimension", it is difficult. It requires lots of energy and effort for the image that is known of this person to be formed, and a "canvas" behind the person would make it a little easier. The walls behind him would have been this canvas.

We cried a little, we ended up smiling.

Professor Romanelli surely knew much, much more than the two of us together.