Several years ago my friend Will came for an unexpected visit one Friday morning. We had a coffee and made some plans for the following Sunday. He stayed for about a half hour then went back to work. My wife and I had another coffee at the kitchen table. All of a sudden there was this clicking sound at the window. It was a bird; a small finch with reddish neck feathers and it was trying to get our attention as it went from window to window. We both wondered what was wrong with it. It seemed as though it wanted to tell us something. I only wished that Will would have stayed longer as he would find that so interesting. The bird finally flew away.

I finished work about 5:30 pm that day and came home and started to read the newspaper. The telephone rang and I answered it. It was will's wife and she was hysterical. Finally her daughter got on the phone and said that her dad (Will) had just died. Well I was just devastated. My friend for several years was gone. It was the long Easter weekend in April. The funeral and the wake were very hard for me. I cried so much from this even more than I did for my own mom and dad.

Several days later Will's widow came to visit. I was will's closest friend and she wanted me to have some of the books that he collected over the years. We sat at the kitchen table and had a coffee or tea. We were close to tears as it was only two days after his funeral. We all agreed that it was a shock as he suffered a massive heart attack. We said that perhaps it is better this way than having a prolonged illness. Then I thought, I wonder how his spirit is doing. There was silence.

In a minute there was a clicking sound at the window. It startled all of us it was a beautiful Bluebird. I had never seen a bluebird before. They are rare up in Canada. The bird hovered at each window and we all got close to see it. I think it was the most beautiful blue that I ever saw. We all felt so good for a while and we all thought the same. We thought that Will sent a messenger to let us know that all was well.

So, it seems to me that birds do indeed bring messages. The first bird had a message that we didn't understand. I often wondered that if I had called Will back would he be alive today.

Wayne