HOW DO YOU SOLVE A PROBLEM LIKE MARIA?

A Scully Among Spirits - Part Three

“I also have a female coming in.”

We were halfway into the scheduled hour that I thought the psychic medium and I were going to have. There was no sign of moving from mediumship to tarot and now another spirit has dropped by.

Typical. Everyone thinks they can stop by without a heads-up first.

But, seriously, my sick tuchus had only planned for an hour-long conversation. I wish I’d known this was going to end up being an hour and a half of me struggling to remain upright.

“I wanna say this is on your mother’s side. It’s either your mother or grandmother.”

Grandma Maria passed away in July 2020 from COVID. She was a complex woman, but I really wish I’d been able to attend her funeral. The pandemic made that impossible.

“She must have helped in your raising because she does not feel like a grandma. She feels like a mother to me.”

We hadn’t spoken in years, but I lived with Maria for a while when I was a kid. This could have had someone else a little more hopeful, but this felt more like Casey wanting confirmation of “feeling like a mother” as she’d just mentioned.

“There's something about ironing. Does she have a thing about ironing? She just said, ‘Do you know that she doesn't iron?’”

There was a very Texan accent with this spirit, not unlike the accent Casey used for my father. This came as quite a surprise to me because Maria had a very thick Mexican accent.

“Where does that even come from? You’re getting this opportunity and you wanna bitch about ironing? Does that make sense?”

It really doesn’t, Casey. I think my face at this point was very much communicating that not much made sense at this point.

After the ironing comment was a bust, there were a lot of assumptions about Maria’s house. Casey spoke about Maria’s home always being perfect and her yard being done. There was a lot about everything looking good on the outside. She also mentioned Maria always having peppermint candy around.

None of this had the “feel” of Grandma Maria. This just felt like how you would describe a lot of people’s grandmothers.

“She makes me feel… I'm trying to be really respectful and, I could be wrong, but she's making me feel like your mother… has some issues. Do you understand that?”

I’d already said a few things about my mother, so this wasn’t a big leap. I threw Casey a bone and mentioned that Maria and my mother were not speaking at the time of Maria’s passing.

Casey indicated with a hand gesture that signified “distance” apparently.

“She's talking to me about your mother and—This is so weird, your dad's coming in. I feel like that you just got the short end of the stick on it all. Right?”

I couldn’t take anything Casey was saying as genuine by this point. I’ve told her enough for her to be able to infer quite a lot about my life.

“Because of things you went through in life and you've been hurt by those closest to you— and those are her words; not mine— You have closed yourself down. You're open to your husband, you're open to a few people within your life, but it's not like your circles are big. She says because of what you've suffered— and I'm sure it's a miscarriage with the way this feels— she says you feel like that even God's not on your side. I don't know, but that's the way she said it to me.”

I pretty much left all that just kind of hanging there. There was some small talk of religion. Being that I am by no means religious, there wasn’t a lot to add on to there.

“Now she is singing ‘Happy Birthday’ and dancing around. She makes me aware that when it was your birthday, you got to eat what you wanted, and you got the cake you wanted.”

Isn’t that most birthdays?

“She says that you have too much stuff.”

As I previously mentioned, I took this Zoom call in my home office. I sat in my white, green, purple and pink gamer chair. There’s a bright pink wall behind me with various bits of artwork. There’s also a tall curio cabinet that is filled to the brim with various action figures and collectibles.

These are things that possibly make little sense to an older person like a psychic medium that has non-descript, white walls in the background.

That or, one might assume, a grandmother would nitpick over things like this. Maria was something of a packrat. We also made weekly trips around the neighborhood to go through people’s trash and see what we could up-cycle when I lived with her.

“She says that you have too much stuff” just felt like a personal observation from Casey.

I didn’t give her much to go on there, so she went back to talking about my mother and brother. Casey initially spoke somewhat highly of both. But, with the additional info I gave her here and there, Casey’s opinion of my mother and brother began to become more and more pointed.

Out of respect for my mother and brother’s privacy, I won’t share any of that. A lot was very personal, yet wildly inaccurate.

Finally, it felt like we were close to saying goodbye to those that supposedly came to visit.

“Do you have any questions for them?”

I really didn’t.

Let’s say everything Casey said had resonated, I still wouldn’t have had questions. I had no real plan going into this whole thing.

It’s a great thing that I didn’t have questions because, as I was forming one, Casey cut me off. She did this a lot throughout.

“Is September important?”

She didn’t have much of a follow-up after I revealed that my brother’s birthday was on the 11^th of September. As I re-directed back to a potential question regarding what happened with my father’s estate, Casey, again, cut me off.

“What did your dad do for a living? I've asked him and all he tells me is ‘construction.’”

Now I was just getting confused because this was something that we talked about in detail. I’m not sure why Casey would be bringing this up like it was for the first time. I mean, aside from not being able to keep up with a ruse.

Once I reminded her, Casey pivoted to talking about my mother again. She kept asking things she knew I didn’t have the answers to. Again, there’s only so much I would know at this point because we’ve been estranged for years.

I think it was clear at this point that I was running out of… what autocorrect would call “ducks.” My stomach bug definitely affected my poker face.

“Did you get enough evidence they were here?”

That would be a “hell no,” but I confirmed just to move us onto the tarot portion of our session.

Somehow, we still weren’t done with mediumship.

“What's interesting is your husband… has his mother passed?”

Judy was the sweetest lady. She was nothing close to resembling a “Monster-In-Law.” When diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, Judy was told that she had approximately 14 years. That woman battled Alzheimer’s for nearly 30.

My husband, father-in-law and I were able to be with her as Judy left us in January 2021.

“I had a sweet lady walk in. Very quiet, very calm voice. She tells me that she's his mother. Did you know her?”

I told Casey that Judy was phenomenal. That she was a great mom and just a great lady.

I waited for something to be mentioned about Alzheimer’s or dementia or— well, anything. This was such a huge part toward the end of Judy’s journey. Casey could prove me so very wrong in this moment.

Casey said nothing.

So, when I brought up Alzheimer’s, Casey redirected with, “I don't know about that, but she says she adored you.”

That was the last confirmation for me. Casey was not legit at all as far as I was concerned. I wasn’t necessarily let down, but it did make me sad.

MORE TO COME!