Roresishms

A Virtual World of Live Pictures.

I was a little nervous, because I had never given this type of reading before. He was going to be a detective, a searcher for lost souls in the mystery of time. Dora wanted me to contact spirits that she had never met, because they had important clues about who she was and where she came from. So when she knocked on my office door a few afternoons ago, I whispered a quick prayer to my guides for help, then ushered her in.

People usually book sessions with me because they want to hear from the spirits of their loved ones. Now if you prefer a psychic reading, they want to know about your life in general. With that type of session, I continue to bring wisdom from the spirit world and then encourage people to make their own decisions about what is best for them.

Dora was a second generation Canadian; Her Hungarian-born parents “named me after Saint Dorothy of Caesarea, the patron saint of gardeners,” she said proudly. Clearly, this woman knew her story. (Perhaps, I thought, she should ask him to look at my garden, which was not so good after the harsh winter).

She was gathering information about her family tree and hoped that her ancestor in the spirit world would talk to her. She had traced her family back to Hungary and Romania, but many records of her had been lost or destroyed during World War II and the subsequent communist occupation.

In one hand he holds a dark green folder full of papers. With the other hand, she held a small brown paper bag. When I took her to my office, she asked me about my Hungarian background: Molnar is a common Hungarian name, like Miller in England or Kelly in Ireland.

“Sorry,” I said with a smile, gesturing for her to sit down. “I married into the clan.”

He took a small cellophane-covered paper plate out of the bag and placed it on my desk. “I made some Poppy Seed Kolaches. It’s from my grandmother’s recipe.”

The moment I touched a Kolache, I felt a gentle male presence nearby. I can’t eat and text at the same time, so I held the cookie and started talking.

“I have a gentleman with me,” I said, “a gregarious fellow who can’t wait to talk. He’s tall and broad-shouldered and has a thick mustache. He identifies himself as a great-grandfather. He shows me his hands. He worked with his hands. Was he a sander?

Dora rummaged through the papers in her folder and pulled out a cracked, yellowed photo of a stocky man in a three-piece suit standing next to a seated woman who looked like she’d just swallowed a lemon wedge. “This is Sandor,” she said, pronouncing the name as the Hungarian Shondor.

For the next twenty minutes, Sandor “talked” to me about the Nagy family and told Dora where she could find information about her family.

Unfortunately, the church in the village of Sandor that contained the records burned down at the end of the 19th century. But the churchyard had a small section for the Nagy family, and he could see the headstones.

“Sandor’s son had two illegitimate children,” I said, passing on the information. He also fathered a girl out of wedlock. From a woman who lived on a neighboring farm.

She sighed, a little embarrassed to admit her grandfather’s fallibility. “We knew that Béla was a total scoundrel!”

A few more members of Dora’s spiritual family arrived, and Dora filled several pages with notes. When she finished the session, she smiled and said that she would review the information that she had given her.

Walking back to my office, I wondered about my own family tree. I was only able to trace my relatives back a few generations. There was so much about my roots that I didn’t know, and seeing Dora made me curious to find out more.

On my father’s side, Grandpa Sidney Kelly left Belfast for Canada; my father joked that Sidney was “banned from Ireland for stealing cows”. My mother’s family came from Austria and Czechoslovakia, and her father, Oscar Epstein, was considered a hero for saving hundreds of Jews during World War II by bringing them to Canada.

And before that? Who were my ancestors during the Renaissance? Did any ancient Kelly in Gaul fight against Caesar’s armies? I have druid blood within me and my kinsmen worshiped at Stonehenge?

Someday I’ll travel to Belfast and get the story from Sidney. We should all try to keep the roots of our family tree healthy and strong, I thought, sipping another kolache.

If you have any questions or comments on this topic or any other spiritual matter, please feel free to email me at [email protected].

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