My younger brother, Neil, loved butterflies.  So, it was not surprising when he told his family he would send butterflies after his death to remind us he was “at home, at peace, and free.”

Neil died last December.  A month later, on the night of his birthday, his little grandaughter, Matilda, awakened, and went sleepy-eyed into her Mom and Dad’s bedroom.  Matilda whispered to her mother, “I want my train shirt.”  That was how this two year old asked for her tee shirt.  “Which train shirt do you want?”  her mother asked as she got up to help Matilda.  “The one with butterflies,” Matilda responded.

Then, a few weeks later, I was having lunch in our volunteer breakroom.  Marilyn, one of our Tuesday volunteers, sat down next to me.  As she reached into her pocket, she said, “Look what one of our guests gave me.”  She placed two, beautiful butterflies on the table.  I was awed; Neil was present.  The butterflies were a gift to Marilyn as well as to me.   In the silence of my heart those butterflies fluttered by me, and said, “Heaven is right here.”

Tags: bay area, Butterflies, Nonprofit, san francisco, st. anthony foundation, st. anthony's, tenderloin

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 21st, 2012 at 11:41 am and is filed under People, Stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.