FATE Magazine “True Mystic Experiences”
April 2003
by Martha Waters
My high school sweetheart and I were married soon after we graduated in 1970. Being children of the 1960s, we often talked about death and the occult. We agreed that whichever of us died first would try to make some kind of contact.
Jerry got into drugs, much to my dismay, and we eventually divorced in the late 1970s. As time went by, we both married again. We remained friends after our divorce but kept only minor contact.
In May 1993 I received a phone call that Jerry had died of an accidental drug overdose. I called my ex-sister-in-law who proceeded to tell me that Jerry’s current wife did not want me to attend his funeral. I did not want to cause any problems for the family, so I decided to abide by her wishes. However, mutual friends said that was silly; I had been married to Jerry longer than she had and he would have wanted me to attend. I called the funeral home and they said that I could come early and pay my last respects without upsetting the widow, so I did.
Jerry’s wake was on Friday, which was payday at my place of employment. I went to the funeral home and paid my last respects. I planned on picking up my paycheck afterward, but was feeling really depressed. I decided to get my check the next day, as I was scheduled to work anyway.
The next day I picked up my check during my lunch break, which was the same time that Jerry’s funeral was taking place. I glanced at the dollar amount to make sure it was in the ballpark of what I was expecting. It was. The check was somewhat faded, but I really didn’t think too much of it. Later that evening, I went to deposit it in the bank, but the ATM was out of order. (Thank goodness!)
The next day, Sunday, I told myself that I must get the check into the bank to cover the checks that I had mailed to pay bills. When I pulled out the check and looked at the amount again, it had started disappearing! Only part of my name and part of the dollar amount could be seen. There was no way that the bank would cash that check. I called work and they said to bring the check in and they would give me a voucher. So that is what I did, on Monday.
I gave my disappearing check to the store secretary and she gave me a voucher. By then a lot more of the check had disappeared. She said that no one else had had any problem with their check’s ink disappearing. She also asked me if that was my ex-husband who had passed away the previous week. I said yes it was. She said that she knew him also, as he was the man that came out and repaired out store’s copy machine.
On my drive home, I was thinking about what she had said. Then it hit me—how crazy! My first love dies and my check disappears! His job was repairing copy machines. We had made a pact years ago to give a sign from the afterlife and he had held up his bargain!
The next day I spoke with the store secretary again. She told me that the rest of the check had started disappearing. She couldn’t understand it either. No other checks had faded like that, out of 40 stores in the chain I worked for. It had never happened to me in 21 years of working there.
What are the odds of my check fading during my ex-husband’s funeral? I believe that he gave me a sign of life in the next world in the way that he was most familiar with, since he repaired copy machines and printers. He still owed me a lot of money when he died, but he gave me something more precious—he gave me a deeper belief in life after death. I say I am paid in full!—South Amherst, Ohio
