Ruth and I seldom spoke about what was next. What lies ahead after we’re gone. We both thought her dad, Lou, visited more than once. She woke up a few times when she thought he was standing at the end of our bed. If she knew why, she didn’t share.
I believe the reason she declined to stop to visit her parents’ grave was because she didn’t need to. She carried them in her heart. She had her memories with her every day. I don’t know if she thought of her parents each day, like I do her, but they were close by whenever she did.
Losing her dad was Ruth’s darkest day. And she wrote in one of her journals that she was “thankful I’ve lived longer than my dad”. He died at sixty-five in much the same manner. He was here and then he was 
gone. All in the blink of an eye.
I think Ruth looked for her lost loved ones in nature. She never talked about her love of nature in those terms, but it fits my current thinking. If all living things are connected, as the psychic I met believes, it fits perfectly.
To be clear, Ruth liked to look at nature, but she didn’t like to be “in it”. If a bug entered our domain, she called the exterminator. If a mouse, or God forbid, a snake approached, we’d have to sell the house. Nature belongs outside. People in.
Ruth was a collector of nature’s “hearts”. She found them everywhere. She gathered heart shaped rocks and put them on display in our homes or took pictures for future reference. She loved collecting them, and her love for them was passed down to other family members, especially Elizabeth and Eva. They have the gift too.
After all I’ve experienced over the past fourteen months, I’m more prepared to comment on Ruth’s declaration, “I do believe”. And although I’m not sure what’s next, I can say, me too.