Strange Sighting

I woke up this morning a little sad because it is my friend Hugh’s Birthday today. Hugh left the earth in February and I still think of him as here. I didn’t see him in person often, but our deep bond still existed and he will always remain one of my favorite people. It’s funny how I know all the birthdays of my long time friends, even ones I don’t see much, and even those who are no longer alive.

I had to go to get a chest X-ray today because I have had walking pneumonia four times this year. I wasn’t really worried that I might have some terrible illness, until I got to the radiologist and had to sit waiting for an hour and a half in a very full waiting room. I mostly played a game on my phone and the longer I sat, the more I wondered what terrible thing they might find in my chest X-ray.

I had a little panic that I have so many classes scheduled and if I needed some kind of treatment what would I do? I looked up from my phone at one point and across the room I saw an older man who was sitting at a right angle to me so I saw him in profile. I did a quick double take because he was a big, fair-skinned, freckled bald man, wearing silver rimmed rectangular glasses, in a blue work shirt and wide red suspenders. He was the spitting image of my father.

I immediately teared up. I couldn’t help myself. I knew he was not my father, who has been gone three years, but he not only looked like him he was wearing an outfit I saw my father wear often. I took my reading glasses off to wipe the tears, that would not stop, away. I looked up and the man was gone.

It was not a Large waiting room. The man I saw was no more than 12 feet away from me. The only way in or out of the room was via the two elevators that opened right into the waiting room. No nurse had come out and called anyone’s name and no elevator had opened or shut.

I have had not visions of my father since his passing, but I have had dreams with him in them, just as I have had a bunch of dreams where Hugh made an appearance. I took this sighting of my “father “ as a sign I was going to be OK. Why OK and not that I had something terribly wrong with me? I just figured he would not be the one to give me a premonition of bad news. Not his style.

I had my X-ray and did some errands before my class tonight. After class I checked my email before I got home. The results from my X-ray were in. All good. My lungs were clear and my heart looked good. Still a mystery about the walking pneumonia, but at least that’s not fatal.

I’m certain there are many people who look like my Dad. This easily could just be some old man, but it sure was strange. The other thing is I haven’t just started crying thinking about my Dad being gone. So the quickness of my tears really caught me by surprise. I really felt like I was being given a message. Glad it was good news. It couldn’t be bad news on Hugh’s birthday. Not his style either.