Coming back from the A & P on tax day, April 15, 2000, my daughter Diane tells me about coming upon two elderly ladies with her shopping cart.  One says to the other, "Come, let the girl go by," then starts singing, "Standing at the corner watching all the girls, watching all the girls go by." "Mom," Diane says, "It was eerie, this woman didn't even know she was singing, she had such a glazed look on her face.  I smiled, of course, because I remembered daddy being so fond of that song and always singing it."  So did we all.  He loved that song. When he was in his eighties Diane took my husband shopping to the A & P.  Before becoming a builder he had been a grocer for 30 years, and clipping coupons and shopping for groceries had been his favorite pasttime. Now at 96,  after a couple of mini-strokes he has mentally slowed down.  I believe that he's straddling realities at this time of his life. "The woman saw me smile," Diane said, "and I know that seeing me so happy made her happy, too.  I really feel as if she channelled Dad for me, just as he used to be."

     Later-on  that same evening, I received an e-mail, and this time it was my turn to wonder if my long deceased mother, she died July 27,1964, had something to do with it.  It read:  "Dear Ute, I came across your site, and I found it to be very wonderful.  Your poetry is awesome and insightful, without being repetitive and annoying.  I admire it.  Keep up the excellent work.  I think you should write a book."  It was signed with my mom's initials: AD.  My mother, Aghavni Demirdjian, had many of her handkerchiefs and towels embroidered with AD, and somehow I couldn't help taking this lovely e-mail as a sign from my dear departed mother.

     April 15, or 4-15 was Bill's, our five-year-old cat's, birthday but little did we know that our second cat, Wolfie, whom we would adopt at the end of June 2000, had also been  born on that special day in the year 2000, namely: 4-15. This number 415 has been our house number for the past 30 years in New Jersey, while 163 had been my house number in Berlin, before coming to this country; and both sum to ten, which also happens to be my birth number, which is 28. Again I have to marvel at these amazing number synchronicities.
 

Ute Kaboolian