Lydia Goodreau 1981

“Greetings”
A Message From Beyond

I am sincerely appreciative of those of you who have written me with your positive response to “Regarding Certain Matters of the Heart,” which was my lucid dream experience in which my deceased parents visited me from "the other side" the night before my open heart surgery. I was overwhelmed by how many of you stated that you were greatly "touched" by my personal experience both emotionally and spiritually. Because you have shown such enthusiastic interest in lucid dream experiences, I have decided to also share with you another even more amazing lucid dream which I had during the early morning hours of July 13th of 2002. This was, in fact, the most unusual and stylistic lucid dream experience I have ever had.

My partner and best friend Stephen lost his mother on November 2nd, 1997. Her name was Lydia Goodreau and she was 87 at the time of her death. Stephen and his mother were extremely close. Not only was she his mother, she was also his best friend. When I entered Stephen’s life in 1962 both he and his mother accepted me lovingly into their lives. Lydia was a very generous and sophisticated woman and anybody her son Stephen chose to love she would accept unconditionally. The three of us often times referred to ourselves as "The Three Musketeers."

Lydia and I became extremely close for we shared a great love of metaphysics. She was proud that I was an astrologer and she would brag about me to everybody she knew. I even became her teacher and taught her how to erect a horoscope chart, but she would become terribly frustrated because she “just couldn’t get the hang of interpreting one.” She and I would talk about the great psychic Edgar Cayce for hours at a time. She especially loved speaking about life after death experiences.

Lydia had been a nurse by profession. She loved to care for the ill and afflicted and was loved and deeply respected by all of her clients. In the course of her career, Lydia had experienced the death of many people which, she stated, had convinced her beyond a doubt that the immortal soul survives the death of the body physical.

One such experience readily comes to my mind. She said to me, 'One of my favorite patients had been under my care for several weeks. The lady was quite elderly and after several weeks of intense suffering her doctors finally announced that she was expected to die before the end of day. Her son was one of the doctors at Mount Zion Hospital in San Francisco where I worked. However, he rarely if ever visited his mother during her hospitalization. It wasn’t because he did not love her. The truth is that he loved her so much that his fear of seeing her die shamefully kept him away. As a nurse, I could always tell when a patient of mine was about to pass. I had decided I would not go home that day until after this particular lady made her transition into the other side. She was so terribly frightened that I could not endure the thought that she be alone at the time of her death, so after working hours I remained in her room so that I could in someway comfort her during her passing.'

'My patient slept throughout most of that day. She would occasionally awake with cries of fear and discomfort. Finally, at 7:30 PM she awakened, grabbed my arm frantically and cried to me, 'Oh please help me! I am so afraid! I see a river before me and I cannot swim, yet I must cross it to get to the other side. There is a man waiting for me to cross but I cannot see his face. I am too far away.'

'Her head tossed from side to side and her eyes widened in fright as if she wanted to scream. 'I don’t see a bridge! The man wants me to come to him. He is beckoning me to come to him but I am afraid of the water. Please, can you help me get across the river?' she pleaded.'

'I took her hand into mine and squeezed it as tightly and as comfortingly as I could. 'Don’t be afraid. You cannot drown. The water is very shallow. Let me go in first and you can hold my hand and I will lead you to the other side one step at a time. Oh my… the water is so nice and cool and soothing. It feels wonderful,' I said. 'Come into the water with me. Hold my hand tightly. I won’t let go of you. Doesn’t the water feel cool and wonderful?' I asked her.

'Oh yes. Yes it does,'' she replied with a smile. She suddenly let go of my hand and I watched as the old lady pointed to something only she could see. 'Oh my goodness,' she whispered. She looked me directly in the eye. She had a childlike expression of amazement on her face…that look a child has when it sees its first lighted Christmas tree. 'The man who is waiting for me wants me to take hold of his hand. I can see his face now. He is Jesus, the son of God. Oh my! Isn’t He beautiful?' She asked with a smile upon her face.

'Yes, He is,' I replied. Suddenly and without fear, the old woman extended her hand to The Son of God and while doing so she took her final breath.'

Lydia loved telling this story as much as I loved hearing it, and each time she told it she could not hold back her tears.

Walden and Lydia ~ 1981

Throughout the many years of our friendship, not one of her birthdays passed without Stephen and myself spending it with her. Mother’s Day visits were almost as consistent as were Easter's, Thanksgiving’s and Christmas Days. Looking back in retrospect, I realize now that the wonderful years we shared together passed by far too quickly. I now relive them in memory and long for the impossible…to have those days return.

It was not until the last six years of Lydia’s lifetime that I recognized that she had become old. Seeing her as often as I did prevented me from experiencing the physical changes aging brings. Despite the aging process, she still retained her physical beauty. There was not a period of her life that she would not be referred to by others as "beautiful and elegant." After her husband died in 1990, Lydia moved into a lovely retirement home in Sonoma near Stephen and me. It was wonderful having her live nearby, as it made it much more convenient for us to visit with her and to attend to her needs.

It is said that, 'Before we enter into the kingdom of God we must become as children.' Some consider this to mean that we must find innocence before the day of our deaths. I feel that it means we must give up our earthly cares, erase our desires and, sadly, forget those whom we have loved. Those of us who have lost loved ones to senility or Alzheimer’s disease might ponder this statement. It is easier for the person dying to release their soul and to return to their Maker when there are no remembrances of things past. At the time of death, so many of us beg that loved one to "Please don’t die! Please stay with me!" thus often times causing the dying one to hold on to life and suffer longer. When the dying one has forgotten us, it is far easier for them to ascend into The Light.

Sadly for us, Lydia slowing descended into the world of Alzheimer’s disease. There were days when she was lucid and aware. There were other days in which we could not reach her. Stephen suffered terribly as the disease overtook her, yet he lovingly did all in his power to keep her alive and make her as comfortable as possible. It was not easy for him to let her go. Each day after work I would go with him to visit his mother at the rest home to which she had had to move. Towards the end of her life, her condition so worsened that I was insistent that Stephen not see her unless I gave my approval after having seen her first.

'But why?' he asked in exasperation. 'She is my mother and I love her and I want to see her!'

I replied, 'It is because she loves you that I will not allow you to humiliate her by seeing her without her dignity. She would never forgive me were she in her right mind. Sometimes she has torn off her nightgown. She would not want you seeing her lying in her bed nude. At other times, she screams madly and for no apparent reason. Lydia would never forgive me if I allowed you to see her in this condition. The Lydia we have known has gone, Stephen. Please know and believe me that she would approve of the way I am protecting you from the ugliness of what she would not want you to experience.'

On the final day of Lydia’s life, Stephen waited in the hospital corridor as I entered her room to see if it was "safe" for Stephen to visit her. Lydia turned to see who had entered. I could tell by the look of alertness in her eyes that she recognized who I was. As I walked towards her bed she threw her hands over her face and cried, 'Don’t look at me! Don’t look at me! Turn away!'

I sat on the side of her bed and pulled her hands away from her face.

'I will most certainly look at you.' I said. 'Lydia, you are still one of the prettiest women I have ever seen. You don’t think that you are because you have gotten old and ill…but you are, Lydia. You are still very beautiful, despite the anguish that you are going through. Please know that.'

She kissed the tips of her fingers and reached to my face and touched them to my lips in appreciation of what I had said. She then looked directly into my eyes. 'I want to go now,' she whispered. 'I want to die. I don’t want you and Stephen to come to see me anymore. Promise me you won’t come to see me anymore. Please let me go!'

I took her hand into mine and said, 'Stephen and I want you to be able to go. We hurt terribly seeing you suffer. However, we both love you so much that it is hard for us to let go of you. You understand, that don’t you?' I asked.

'Yes I understand that, but you must let me go. Please, please don’t come back to see me anymore. Tell Stephen not to come. It hurts too much to see him. It is time that I go.'

I smiled at her and said 'I have a wonderful surprise for you. When you do go, Penny gets to go with you.'

Penny had been the Beagle whom Lydia had loved so dearly. Lydia’s eyes opened widely and for a moment they twinkled as if she were a child seeing its first lighted Christmas tree.

'Do you mean that my Penny’s cremated ashes will be scattered with mine?'she asked.

'Yes. I knew you would like that, so I made arrangements for it to be done and I promise you that when that time comes the two of you will be together. In time Stephen’s and my ashes will be with yours and Penny’s too.'

She looked up at me and tears fell from her eyes. Once again, she kissed the tips of her fingers and touched them to my lips. 'Oh, thank you, Wally. Thank you so much,'she exclaimed. She paused for a moment and then in a tone of great seriousness she said, 'I know you will take good care of Stephen.You know that I will always be with the two of you. Death will not part us.' she said.

I nodded my head in agreement and then asked, 'Please let Stephen come into the room to see you one more time. He loves you so much. It would be unfair for you not to see him just one more time. You two must say your "good-byes." Tell him how deeply you love him and what a wonderful son he has been to you. After that you can explain to him why you do not want him to come to see you anymore. He will understand. I will help him to.'

'Yes,'she replied. 'Yes, I will tell him what you ask.'

I bent over and kissed her on her lips for the last time and whispered 'I love you. I will always, always love you.'

Afterwards, I walked to the door and opened it and told Stephen that today was a day that he could enter. 'She wants to see you, Stephen. She is completely coherent right now. Go speak with her.'

Stephen was trembling as he obediently walked towards his mother’s bed. I closed the door behind him. He visited a long while and it was not hard to imagine the sentiments they shared during that final visit. Her nurses later told us that after our visit Lydia turned her head towards the wall and never communicated again.

---

It is not unusual for me to dream. I doubt that there is a night that I do not do so. I usually have a series of several different dreams each night and, like everyone else, I remember some and forget others. On the night of July 13th of 2002, I had a dream that I shall forever remember, for it was the strangest dream I have ever experienced.

I was in a deep sleep when suddenly two huge brilliant white tablets appeared before me. They were the exact shape that one sees depicting The Ten Commandments, an arched top with both sides perfectly straight up and down and the bottom straight across. They were enormous in size, and as my mind tried to determine just how large they were, I realized I could not do so because the white was too bright to look at. The two tablets were as smooth and solid as if cut from marble.

Suddenly, large jet black horizontal bars started forming on each tablet. The bars varied from singular thick ones to others that were very thin and close together in series of twos and threes. I had never seen such an intense black before and the strange horizontal bars scared me. They were like gigantic bar codes that are used on grocery and department store items. I recall thinking to myself, 'Dear God, is this alien writing? Is someone from another planet trying to make contact with me?'

I thought of getting out of bed and running out of the house, but instead I watched the unusual spectacle. In truth, I was probably too frightened and horrified to move.

Suddenly, the black bars stopped forming and when they did so the two tablets moved together into one. I gasped in surprise when all of a sudden the bars united and spelled out a message. The message was very specific and totally clear. I was so emotionally moved by the experience that I awoke with a jolt and sat at the side of my bed and wept for what seemed like a long while. It was 2:30 AM and I did not sleep throughout the rest of that night.

The following morning was Stephen’s birthday. All day, I pondered how I should best share my dream experience with him. I knew without question that I had to share what I had experienced, because the message in the dream was specifically for him. Finally, that evening while we were having cocktails I found what I thought to be the proper moment.

I very carefully tried to select the exact words to relate the unusual experience. As we sat on the balcony overlooking the pool, I said, 'Stephen, I hope what I am about to tell you won’t upset you. I had a very strange dream last night and…'

'You had a very strange dream last night?' he interrupted. 'Let me tell you about the scary dream I had first. I had this terribly frightening dream about seeing two enormous white marble like tablets. They were tablets like you see The Ten Commandments carved on except that the tablets were so white that they were blinding and it was hard for me to look at them.'

Hearing his words astonished me! My mouth fell wide open and tingling chills ran down my arms and spine.

'Suddenly these really black, black straight up and down vertical bars of some kind of crazy writing started forming on each tablet,' he said.

I interrupted him by asking, 'Was it kind of like the writing an alien from outer space might do?'

'Yes, exactly!' he answered excitedly. 'It scared the hell out of me! Then all of a sudden, the two tablets came together and the black bars formed some letters. I tried and tried to read what the bar shaped letters all put together said but they all blurred and it was unreadable.'

'What time did you awaken from this dream?' I asked.

'I looked at my clock when I awakened and it was 2:30 AM. Why do you ask?'

I reached across the table and grabbed his hand squeezing it tightly. 'This is just incredible Stephen…totally incredible!' I exclaimed. 'I had the exact same dream as you did Stephen. It was exactly the same dream and I awoke from it at 2:30 AM the same as you did.

'Are you serious?'he asked.

By the expression on his face I could tell that my words had completely startled him. 'I swear to God I did,' I answered. We looked at each other with the knowledge that what we were sharing was true despite the fact the experience seemed absolutely unbelievable.

After a long pause, Stephen asked, 'Were you able to read the writing at the end of the dream when the two tablets came together?'

His question brought tears to my eyes for I did not know how my answer would affect him. I quickly dried my tears with my cocktail napkin. 'Yes. Yes I was able to read the words,' I replied. 'The message was extremely clear and although it was meant to be shared by both of us, it was mostly meant for you, Stephen.'

'Meant for me?' Stephen asked. He was obviously surprised by my comment.

'Yes. Today is your birthday and I feel this dream came to us on this day because your birthday was always shared between the three of us for so many years.'

'The three of us? You mean mother, you and me?' Stephen asked.

'Yes…we always called ourselves The Three Musketeers,' I replied.

'Yes, I know that we did, but I don’t understand. Who was the message from? What did the strange letters spell?' he asked.

I took a deep breath before answering his question, trying to control my emotions and then said, 'I swear to God, Stephen. What I am about to tell you is true. The two tablets merged together and became one and then the parallel bars all merged together and spelled in the English language the words:

'I love you,
From
Lydia'

'The message was from your mother! She has reached us from the other side. Happy Birthday, Stephen…your mother has made contact with us and she did so on your birthday.'

In all the years I have known Stephen, I have seen him cry very few times. He cried at my mother’s funeral. He cried when our two pet dogs died. He cried when I was taken to the hospital, when I was operated on, and when I returned home. During the months in which Lydia was ill, he cried alone in his room. How many times? Only he could know. On the day of her death, I was with him and on that day he cried until he could cry no more. Being a Cancerian, Stephen is very stoic and hides his emotions as is the nature of those born under the Sign of Cancer, which is depicted as a side stepping crab with a hard outer shell that protects the tenderness inside. He was obviously embarrassed by the tears that came to his eyes when I shared the tablets message with him. He turned his head away from me so that I could not see his embarrassment. Knowing his pride, I rose from where I was sitting and walked away into the house so that he could be alone.

The End

Stephen and Lydia 1981