Recognized for her no-nonsense perspective, Metropolis superwoman Nicola Horlick is somebody who suffers no fools.
But this week within the Mail she shared her astonishing account of how, from work mysteriously falling to the bottom to extra visceral encounters, her daughter Georgie got here again to ‘assist’ the household after she died from leukaemia aged 12.
Her compelling, and deeply transferring, phrases struck a really private chord with a few of you, our readers, who yourselves have misplaced youngsters. Your responses got here flooding in, telling us the way you, too, had been visited by your little kids from past the grave.
‘Our beautiful Lisa had solely handed two weeks earlier when she first visited us,’ says Clive Wilson. ‘We have been in mattress, sobbing ourselves to sleep when Trish noticed Lisa’s face seem and heard her say very clearly, “Mum, Dad wants you.”
‘It was typical of Lisa to be involved for me. Since then, she has visited us frequently. Generally she is vividly current. However there have additionally been quirky incidents which haven’t any different clarification.’
Particular presence: Lisa Wilson at her commencement in 2001, a yr earlier than she died in a automobile accident in Australia
As with Nicola, Lisa’s demise has satisfied earlier sceptics Clive, 70, and spouse Trish, 72, from the New Forest — who say they aren’t strongly spiritual — that there’s an after-life, and that the lifeless can talk with the dwelling.
Lisa was simply 23 when she died in a automobile accident in 2002. A go-getter, she had saved as much as go travelling after graduating in 2001 from Solent College in Southampton with a level in enterprise administration.
She had travelled by the U.S., Fiji and New Zealand, throwing herself into exploits that Clive admits ‘left us sick with nerves like climbing glaciers and bungee leaping’.
When Lisa reached Australia and the homeward stretch, her mother and father lastly felt in a position to chill out. Nonetheless, in November 2002, Lisa was driving to Uluru with mates when the automobile swerved off the street. Lisa, who was within the passenger seat, died immediately.
‘It’s unattainable to explain our shock and devastation,’ says Clive, who additionally shares two sons with Trish — Scott, now 46, and Ross, 44. ‘We flew straight out to Australia to convey Lisa dwelling.
‘That’s when Trish first sensed her presence — when Lisa advised her to consolation me.’
Over the following few months Lisa visited her mother and father a number of occasions. ‘Once I couldn’t sleep, I discovered consolation mendacity in her mattress,’ Clive tells us. ‘As soon as, I sensed her so vividly mendacity beside me that I carried her on my again, alongside the touchdown, in order that she may consolation Trish, too.
‘Her presence was so intense. It was like feeling waves of electrical energy charging by me and Trish mentioned I used to be glowing throughout. It was extraordinary.’
However in addition to a bodily presence, Clive says Lisa offered herself in bodily methods — even giving her mother and father ‘presents’.
‘Just a few years after she died, it was approaching Father’s Day and I used to be significantly low,’ he says. ‘I occurred to be visiting a whisky distillery in Scotland the place I picked up 15 miniature bottles to offer as presents.
‘Once I got here to unpack them later that day, I discovered an additional bottle I hadn’t picked up or paid for. I imagine it was Lisa’s Father’s Day present.’ Since Lisa’s demise, the couple have raised £300,000 to fund bursaries, The Lisa Wilson Scholarship Fund, for college kids at Solent College.
‘It has been an enormous consolation,’ says Clive. ‘However the largest consolation has been understanding that Lisa continues to be round — nonetheless watching us, nonetheless loving us as we love her.’
Lilian McDade is aware of how he feels. It’s the visits from her youngest son Daniel which have helped the retired trainer from Glasgow by her unimaginable loss.
‘Since he died, Daniel has visited me frequently and despatched lots of of communications,’ says Lilian, 75. ‘We have been extraordinarily shut whereas he was alive and I imagine he nonetheless needs to indicate his love.’
Daniel McDade died from a viral an infection which went to his mind, on the age of 21, in 2002. His mom Lilian mentioned visits from her youngest son have helped the retired trainer from Glasgow by her unimaginable loss
The newborn of the household, coming after siblings Jamie, now 46, and Angela, 43, Lilian describes Daniel as ‘the sunshine of my life’.
‘He was a good-looking younger man with an enormous circle of mates, and a fantastic job in trend retail. He beloved clubbing and sports activities,’ she says.
‘When he died of a viral an infection aged 21, simply six days after falling unwell, I used to be in full anguish. I actually didn’t know the way I might survive till, six months after he died, I had essentially the most fantastic, life-affirming expertise.’
Lilian describes how, out for a winter stroll in the future, Daniel returned to her.
‘I noticed him standing on the high of a snow-covered hill surrounded by fir timber, all twinkling with colored lights,’ she says. ‘He was carrying the lengthy, black coat that also hangs in his wardrobe.
‘Strolling in the direction of me, he smiled and mentioned, “Take a look at the winter wonderland I’ve made for you.” Then he put his arms round me and gave me an enormous hug.
‘I felt at peace for the primary time since he had died. Daniel and I each beloved winter time, so the present made good sense.’
The go to sparked the start of Lilian’s therapeutic course of, and additional indicators from Daniel, each immediately and by way of different individuals. ‘After that, I began receiving communications from many alternative sources,’ she says.
‘A trainer pal of Daniel’s returned from a snowboarding journey within the Dolomites that they have been as a consequence of take collectively.
‘He advised me that he had clearly sensed Daniel standing on the high of the mountain beside him — able to ski down collectively. Somebody who didn’t normally imagine in this kind of factor, he was astounded.
‘One other time I had been to the spot the place we scattered Daniel’s ashes. I used to be strolling dwelling, sobbing, once I heard Daniel’s voice clear as day say, “I’m not up there, Mum. I’m coming again dwelling with you”.’
Others additionally reported seeing Daniel.
Eight years after his demise, Lilian acquired an astonishing report from a pal who was house-sitting for her whereas she was on vacation.
‘Once more, somebody who would usually be sceptical about ghosts, he advised me that, on a number of events, he noticed a younger man standing within the nook of the lounge,’ she says.
‘In all of the communications — whether or not direct to me or by different individuals — essentially the most astounding factor is that Daniel’s persona shines by. His kindness, vitality and sense of humour are so vivid.
‘I miss Daniel desperately and mourn the life he ought to have had. However I’m so grateful to have these fantastic experiences. They’re much much less frequent now, however Daniel nonetheless checks in on me about 4 occasions a yr and all the time once I want him most.’
Nonetheless, most of the mother and father we spoke to additionally shared how that they had seen their little one in different varieties than their bodily one.
For Lucy Herd, who misplaced her son Jack aged 23 months in 2010, after he tragically drowned of their backyard pond after climbing over a wall, her little boy all the time seems to her in the identical, magical manner.
Jack Herd died, aged 23 months, in 2010, when he drowned within the backyard pond after climbing over a wall
‘It was between Jack’s demise and his funeral that he first got here again to me,’ says the 46-year-old from Wokingham, Berkshire, who additionally has a son, 25, daughter, 20, and seven-year-old Noah, who was born after Jack’s demise.
‘I’d gone to go to him on the chapel of relaxation and once I got here again exterior I discovered myself trying up, screaming on the sky, like a wild animal in ache.
‘I blamed God for taking him away from me. My world was shattered: I had no thought how I used to be ever going to dwell once more.
‘However as I used to be screaming into this clear blue sky, out of nowhere, a rainbow appeared. It stopped me and I simply stood there trying. It was a vibrant, heat day. Why was there such an extremely vivid rainbow above me?
‘As quickly as I noticed it, I had this overwhelming sense of peace. I knew it was Jack who was attempting to inform me every little thing can be OK.’
It proved to be just the start.
Within the first yr after Jack’s demise, Lucy noticed greater than 150 rainbows.
‘Earlier than than, I’d simply have seen a handful,’ says Lucy.
‘However now there have been so many and so they appeared on events once you’d by no means usually see a rainbow, which is why I do know it’s Jack. I noticed them in entrance of me within the fog once I was strolling with the canines, I noticed “moonbows” at night time and “fireplace rainbows” on clear days.
‘That is what these rainbows that arrive with out rain are known as, I’ve since found. They aren’t frequent and normally seem to sailors at sea, or in icy locations.’
She provides: ‘Rainbows are completely applicable for Jack as a result of his persona was so vibrant and magical. He was somewhat ball of vitality, a boy with an infectious snicker who would say good day to everybody and blow kisses to previous women within the grocery store queue.
‘When he’s with me, I typically get this nearly childlike vitality — I can really feel his mischievous pleasure for all times.’
In fact, Lucy says that issues have been by no means the identical after his demise.
Like so many {couples} who are suffering such a loss, she and Jack’s father struggled to grieve collectively and their relationship didn’t final. However all through, Jack’s rainbows have been a consolation.
‘If I’m on the lookout for a rainbow, I’ll by no means see one,’ says Lucy. ‘However once I want it — on his birthday, anniversaries, once I’m feeling low or want reassurance — someway they all the time seem.’
At all times by my facet: Beth Deacon-Bates with child Roy in 2019
Tragically, Beth Deacon-Bates and her husband Jack by no means acquired the prospect to essentially know their little boy Roy, who died at 5 days previous in 2019 after he was born at 28 weeks.
But Beth swears she has nonetheless been in a position to watch Roy develop up.
‘Meals has all the time been an enormous ardour of mine however after Roy died I misplaced the will to bake,’ says the 28-year-old from Colchester, Essex.
‘Then, in the future, a few months after his demise, as I stood my baking gear, I felt a presence within the doorway.
‘Greater than that, I may see a mist round it, too, that couldn’t be defined by something that was occurring within the kitchen. I simply knew it was Roy.
‘It was extremely comforting and gave me a shake-up to proceed with life. I began baking once more and began seeing him frequently after that.’
Beth acknowledges that ‘it would sound unusual to anybody who hasn’t felt this’, however she provides: ‘It’s as if he’s on the sting of our world and maintaining a tally of his household.
‘He can’t be absolutely current in our dimension, however he’s very undoubtedly there and my son’s presence within the doorways round my dwelling provides me solace.’
Since Roy’s demise, Beth, who additionally has sons Vincent, 4, and Edmund, one, has begun fundraising in his reminiscence. And, she says, Roy has been current for that, too.
‘Coaching for a half-marathon wasn’t simple. But each single time I went out for a run I’d see a fox, even in the midst of the day once they’re not often out,’ she says.
‘We’d make eye contact with one another. I simply knew it was Roy’s manner of constructing a connection.
‘After we bought our home in October final yr, I feared I’d now not see Roy in our new dwelling. Fortunately, I nonetheless really feel his presence lingering in doorways.
‘I expertise him within the type of the age he ought to be, so in the intervening time I see him right here as a toddler, although I don’t see him intimately.’
Although Jack doesn’t share his spouse’s view that Roy continues to be with them, Beth says he’s supportive.
‘As for me, once I do die, I do know I’ve acquired my subsequent chapter with my son,’ she says.
‘As Roy’s mum, this provides me immense consolation.’