In this after-death communication, Dustin is resourceful in finding a variety of creative ways to let his loved ones know that he is very much alive and still involved in their everyday lives.

In memory of Dustin Koch 1988 – 2015

Pat shares:
“My 26 year-old son Dustin, died in a horrible car accident on June 30, 2015. That same day, my sister who lives 1,000 miles away, said that a very tame bunny showed up outside her patio door watching her inside cats. I did read some memories of Dustin on his face book page after it was posted he had died. One memory from a co-worker was of him chasing a bunny rabbit around a tree, which the workers named Bugs. He was a security officer at Six Flags theme park and known as ”Guardian of Gate 6″. I sent my sister the memory of the rabbit. She did not know of this before. Nor did I. Then, she emailed me to say the bunny has gone from her patio. It took about a week. In it’s place she found a plastic heart. Her son also managed to get two tickets to the Packer Tribute on the 18th. It was sold out and none were available. She wondered if this was Dustin’s doing.”

“My next door neighbor, Lori, has helped me do Dustin’s laundry. I could not bare to look at his clothes. She says her dryer light has not worked in two years. It worked for two loads of his laundry. When she does her own…the light goes back to not working. Then, our refrigerator light went out after he died. Maybe this is just a coincidence. I don’t remember ever changing it. But my hubby thinks it could be Dustin. Dustin would bring home food for himself to eat after work and his dad would just eat it. He thinks he is telling his dad to knock it off.”

“My question is, what do all these signs mean and why has he not contacted me? Dustin had not seen his aunt for 16 years. Why now?”

Commentary- It seems that Dustin has been quite busy these days. To connect with us again, our loved ones have to find ways to get our attention. In this case, Dustin picked the symbol of a bunny; something he was well-known to have an association with. It is no accident that his co-worker posted his memory of Dustin with the bunny and no accident that his mother saw the post. For sure, Dustin prompted him to post it for the connection to be made. It is also no coincidence that his Aunt witnessed a peculiar bunny sitting outside her patio window with his nose practically pressed against the glass while watching the cats. How else would she have even noticed if there was not something completely out of the norm?

It does happen very often that after-death communication signs do not come to us directly, but through another person. Please realize that our loved ones are doing the best they can to reach us. Sometimes it is not possible for them to come directly to us for whatever reason. It could be that they have, but through the heaviness of our sorrow, we have over-looked it. They will keep trying though, as you will see. 

In place of the bunny was a plastic heart. Nice touch, Dustin! You can see that he has a sense of humor still. It is more than likely that those two Packer Tribute tickets came through, solely because of Dustin. Our loved ones are watching out for us. They will help us where they can, just ask. In this case, I’m sure it seemed like nothing short of a miracle to Pat’s nephew!

In the example with Pat’s neighbor, Lori, Dustin is desperately trying to get his mother’s attention when Lori notices the light in the dryer only worked with Dustin’s clothes in it, and then tells her about this. This could be taken as a symbolic sign that Dustin has made it to the light.

It’s easy to over-look some electrical symbols, but very often they are used to communicate. Dustin’s dad could very well be right about the burned out light in the fridge. But now, it seems like Dustin is teasing his dad about eating his food, for in his current state, Dustin no longer sees this as an issue, instead; this is just a reminder to his father that Dustin still has his eyes on him.

When Pat wrote me with her questions, she seemed perplexed at the time and a little disheartened that Dustin had not come to her, his mother. When someone gets the after-death communication that we think we should have had, it can hurt and feel like some sort of a rejection. From our perspective, it is really very difficult to know the big picture of it all. I know it’s annoying to hear this and you may desperately want to hear from your loved one personally, but please trust them to know what they’re doing. In the grand scheme of things, having faith and donning the mantle of grace, goes a lot farther in bringing us the peace of mind we are seeking in our challenging moments of need. What I’m trying to say is… I hear this often. It is a normal and natural response to the loss of a loved one. There is nothing wrong. Of course we would rather hear from our loved one directly, than through another person. To this, I offered my reply to Pat as a perspective and partial explanation.

My response: “You know your son loves you, right? Love is the bond that binds us together.”

“Consider this from another perspective. You are receiving after-death communications from your son, Dustin, through others. It does not mean you are any less special or loved by him. You know he lives still. You know he is trying to make an appearance. Sometimes they show up right after passing, but the pain is so fresh, we think that we are only thinking about them and the loss is so painful, we don’t realize that they are actually with us, and trying to comfort us in the way that they can.”

“It took me awhile to realize this. When they come and we are so sad, they don’t come to us for awhile, or at least attempt to make their presence known, because they don’t want to bring us pain. He is with you always, as well as riding every roller-coaster in the Universe. ;)” (She had previously told me how much Dustin loved to ride roller coasters)

“Trust him. He will come to you in some way that will delight you. :)”

Shortly after our exchange…
Pat writes:
“Actually, something just happened minutes ago that makes me think Dustin is still here. All day today, my husband could not find his wallet. He looked all over the house. I told him to ask Dustin where it is. Just a few minutes ago, I picked up an empty can to put in the recycle bin and there on top of bin, was my husband’s wallet! Now, how would his wallet get there and why would I even look there otherwise? I think Dustin knew I had the can in my hand and that’s where I was heading. Just a thought.”

He sure did, Pat! Our loved ones are very much aware of what we are doing, as well as, what we are thinking and feeling. So talk to them!

AND…
Pat writes:
“I did forget to tell you that my spare computer was acting up on Skype. I have an autistic son in a group home close by who calls me on Skype every night. Skype had not been loading right since Dustin died. No picture was coming through and it would not let me post to him. It was making a scraping sound.”

“I asked Dustin to fix it if he was around. The next day when my son Aaron called me that night…it worked perfect. Clear picture and posts went right through. It was amazing.”

“Of course that only lasted for 4 days then it died. The fan went in it. It was an old computer…windows ’98 so I did get another one. But for a few days it did work after I talked to Dustin. I guess he did the best he could do with a clunker computer.”

Like I said… Our loved ones love us still. They know of our pain and try to do the best they can to help us from where they are. In this case, Dustin was able to, not only make the clunker computer work for a few more days, but in doing so, allowed his mother to know that he had actually heard her request when she petitioned him for help. Remember, it’s okay to ask for help! Our loved ones want to serve us however they possibly can.

I was inspired to call this post, “Guardian of the Galaxy”, because even though Dustin had been the “guardian at gate 6” at a former job at Six Flags Amusement park, I imagine that now, as the beautiful Earth angel that he was, Dustin has been promoted to guarding some corner of the galaxy, protecting us, keeping us all safe from harm… AND… riding every roller-coaster in the Universe; the greatest amusement park of them all! That’s just who he was. That’s just who he still is.

Note: Although this post was behind a few others, I woke up on Sunday morning with an urgent feeling to get to this post as soon as possible, so I did. As I wrote, I could feel what felt like Dustin’s promptings. Many times I get related with the loved one who passed, just by the sheer act of sharing their story. Then, later on it all made sense, as Pat wrote to tell me that it was Dustin’s Birthday that day.

I had hoped to get it out on his birthday, but wanted to run it by his mother first; since her wounds are so fresh. I wanted to make sure it honored Dustin, as well as his family. So this is two days late, but…

Happy Belated Birthday, Dustin! And thank you for your contribution on this planet. Oh, what a ride life is!

Also read about the passing away of Dustin’s dog, Ashton at Best of Buddies