Butterflies sent from Grandma

Though she’d gone to Heaven, Woman’s World reader Kate Foley’s mom wasn’t about to miss her granddaughter’s college graduation. Kate writes:

My mom was so incredibly proud when my daughter, Colleen, graduated from high school as her class valedictorian in June 2015 and enrolled in bioengineering studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). For my mom’s birthday that year, we bought her an “MIT Grandparent” sweatshirt, which she treasured. She loved and was proud of all of her grandchildren but relished in telling everyone she met that one of her granddaughters attended MIT.

In May of 2018, Colleen visited with my mom before leaving for a summer internship at the Paris Cardiovascular Research Center in France.

A couple of months later, in mid-july, my mom, who had previously broken her hip, took another fall. She had serious complications and developed a staph infection. She passed away at age 85 on July 28. I was blessed to be by her side.

As much as Colleen wanted to return home for the funeral, our family made the difficult decision for her to remain in Paris and spend the day of the funeral doing something my mother would have loved, visiting churches and other historic places.

In June of 2019, as Colleen’s graduation approached, I thought about how much Mom would have loved to have been there. One day, as

I took my daily walk, I had a butterfly fly beside me several times. Each time, I had an overwhelming feeling that my mom was nearby.

Then on graduation day, as my family sat outside among the crowd, a beautiful monarch butterfly suddenly fluttered about then flew over to me. To my amazement, it landed on my leg, where it remained for close to a minute. In my 51 years, I had never had a butterfly land on me before. I knew with all my heart that it was Mom. There was no way she was going to miss Colleen’s special day!

“In my 51 years, I’ve never had a butterfl y land on me before!”