This particular piece of mail is going into my personal Gratitude Journal. So very often I wonder how I am helping, and "if" I am. So it is especially nice to receive an email like this one, which more than moved me to tears. It made me openly sob in gratitude to have made a difference in someone's life. I love you all. ****
Edited for content as to privacy. ****
Dear Linda:
I must write to thank you for the peace you have given me. Since my ex-fiance jumped 7 floors to his death I have been in turmoil. Although we broke up nearly 10 years ago and he moved back to Germany, we had remained very close friends and had often said that we should have worked things out and married.
But, I had already remarried and that just wasn't going to happen, so as close friends we kept in contact and involved in each other's lives.
I knew he had Parkinson's, but he always said it was mild. When I wrote him an email the last Friday in February I sent it to his work address, which I usually don't. On Monday I got a reply from his co-worker that his Parkinson's was really bad and he saw no way out, so he jumped. However, someone from the company called his mother and told her that the boss called him in and demoted him, then he jumped.
I talked to his best friend over there and he said no way - that he'd never jump for being demoted. He believes they fired him and he jumped. That is what I believed then too, and you confirmed it when you said it was an act of desperation, not depression.
After reading the email from his co-worker on that Monday I went almost immediately into my first (and last) gallbladder attack which was excruciatingly painful. I was in the hospital within just a few hours of getting the news and had the surgery Tuesday morning. I asked the doctor to keep me on a high dose of pain medicines. I couldn't deal with the mental pain and just wanted to sleep.
When I got out I just could not get over it. I was crying constantly. Some suggested I see a therapist so I went to someone in Westfield and she felt that YOU would be able to help me more than she could. She told me of all the positive results her other patients got from you so I knew I had to do it.
I can't tell you the relief and peace I now feel. I didn't tell you anything about him except that it was the loss of a loved one. He could have been my husband, brother, friend... but you knew it was a relationship of the past and that both of us had gone on and had other relationships. I felt the peace coming on.
After all the things you told me, especially that he wants me to stop crying and that he is at peace, I felt so much better. That's what I needed to know - how he was.
I cried alot after our session - not at all because of being sad, but from being overwhelmed with peace.
When you said my 3rd great grandfather Chester was there I thought I'd fall out of the chair! And then my 2nd great grandmother, Mary was standing next to my ex, smiling - WOW! I had just shown both of their pictures to my girlfriend the day before while we were working on our genealogy.
I've told so many people who now want to come to you. I hope you can give them the comfort you've given me.
Thank you again for bringing me peace.
Sandra A.
p.s. Feel free to use this letter as a testimonial in any books or boards you may have.