I Found My People at Lily Dale

“You have a brother-in-law who passed from this life, yes?”

The psychic medium pointed at me. I was too surprised to answer. My mind went blank. Did I have a brother-in-law who was dead?

Without waiting for me to answer, she continued. “He says that no one has to do anything, no one has to take the initiative, because they all know you’ll do whatever needs to be done.”

That’s true. But isn’t that true of most mothers? Maybe even most women?

“You have something wrong with the lower half of your body, yes?” She was speaking so quickly. “Hips, knees, ankles. Your bother-in-law is saying that you need to take care of that because Advil is no longer working.”

There was no way she could have guessed that. I hadn’t slept in two nights because the pain in my left ankle was so bad. My hip almost always hurts. And lately, my knee had been complaining. Ignoring it was becoming less and less of an option. Ostrich medicine only works for the ostrich for so long. Time to get my head out of the sand.

And, oh, yeah, I did have a brother-in-law who died–my sister’s husband.

Monday I got back from Lily Dale Assembly, about an hour outside Buffalo, New York. Opened in 1879, Lily Dale is not only a spiritual healing center, but also home to about thirty-five registered psychic mediums. It’s open to the public in the summer. I went with my friend Lindsay to experience mediumship demonstrations, hands-on spiritual healing, the old-growth virgin forest, the fairy garden, and the labyrinth. But mostly, I wanted to be with people like me, people who don’t think I’m a kook when I mention that I see dead people.

The first night I was there, as I got into bed, two people came to me. The first was a man, who looked a bit like Niles Crane from the TV show Frasier, except he was dressed in clothes from the turn of the last century. The other was a young girl in a sailor dress.

The next morning, I went downstairs and asked the owner of the house we were staying at what he knew of the history of the house. Without a word, he pulled up a photo on his phone and handed it to me. There was my guy, right in the center, standing on the steps of the house!

Later, the girl in the sailor dress came to Lindsay, who is a talented medium. She said the girl had been a student there, but she died young. The sailor dress was her favorite, but her mother didn’t like her to wear it. She came to me because I always notice little flowers and she loved them too, and because I teach children. She said she misses her teachers from Lily Dale.

I had similar experiences throughout the five days I was there. Everyone does. Lily Dale is absolutely magical. There are classes and presentations you can attend and mediums you can pay for an in-depth reading, or you can simply sit and chat with the other visitors.

There’s something wonderful about finding your people and feeling completely accepted.

I can’t say enough good things about my trip. I miss it already and I can’t wait to go back.