Visit to a medium.

With an open mind I set off to have a reading by a medium named Susan, she was recommended to me by a neighbour who had a very positive reading from her a year or so back. I didn't know what to expect having never had a reading before, but what followed was way beyond my wildest expectations.

As Susan was very local to me, just a ten minute drive away, I was a little sceptical in that maybe she could have done an internet search on my name, although I had only given her my first name, the plan when I first phoned her for an appointment was to give a false name, but when she asked my name I just automatically said Colin.

On arrival I was greeted at the door with a really warm welcome by Susan,

she showed me through to her lounge and I sat in a chair opposite her, she asked if I would like the reading taped, but with nothing to play a tape on I declined, I figured that if anything came through it would just be a few broken sentences or single words, that I could jot down on the note pad I had with me and work out the significance later, how wrong was I ! I now wish I had requested the tape as what followed was not just a few words and statements that you see on psychic television shows, but a full on half hour of being told things that only I could know and they came through rapidly without much pause. I should have known if Alison was to come through it would be full on non stop. Not only did specific things come through, but also Alison's unique personality.

Before she started the reading, she handed me a printed card saying that, as a medium she did not foretell the future or the past and that she could not guarantee anyone in particular coming through from spirit. With that accepted the session began. She then told me to just answer yes or no to anything that might come through or clarify something if needed. She knew nothing of me or of who I had lost. What may come through would be specific words and phrases and that she connects with the spirits thought., I then have to fill in the gaps.

I know from reading about messages that a spirit may be thinking/speaking in long sentences, but this is picked up by the medium broken up, a bit like a bad reception on a radio. Throughout the reading Susan is unaware of Alison's name, Alison may well have given her name, but it wasn't picked up by Susan.

Susan closed her eyes for about a minute, opened them and said, I have a lady here, she has beautiful sparkling eyes and very attractive, she is a very free spirited person,very happy around people and knows what she wants and goes for it. She died very quickly, she could not breath, it was very quick and no pain. She now knows it was her time to go and she was surrounded by past family who were there to guide her to where she is now. She is so sorry it was so quick and wishes now that we could have had that last hug. ( Before she went out on her bike for that last time, I had asked her for a cuddle/hug, had we had that hug, she would still be here).

She did not realize how much she meant to me and how much I loved her, also did not realize how much her friends loved her. She focused more on giving love than receiving it. She knows this now, but there is nothing she can do to change that, she was overwhelmed at how many people came to her funeral, but she is happy where she is and at peace.

Susan then said there was a man with her, Susan said 'father' and that he never got to say he loved me and that he was very proud of me. I immediately thought it must be my father who died many years ago, but once home and thinking about it, my father would not need to say those words and wouldn't say them, but I knew a man who would!, it was Alison's father who died three years before her.

Alison then took over again, the next word to come through was 'Handbag' Susan said she is making a big point as to how special this handbag was and is saying give my love to mum. This handbag was a Gucci handbag and Alison mum had bought it for her, Alison treasured it, it was the only one she used day in day out, she even photographed it, she was so proud of it. Susan asked me if 'handbag' meant anything to me, I said yes, it still has all her things in it. Susan said, yes Alison knows that and knows that you haven't moved any of her things, but it is ok to move things when I feel the time is right. She is now saying Waterfront in Ipswich and coffee shop, she says she went there to relax. Everyday Alison would go down to the re-developed docks in Ipswich to a coffee shop called coffee link, she would often meet friends there or just chill on her own. Then the words University and Vegetarian came through along with a name 'Diana'. Alison's friend who she would often meet at coffeelink, was Petra, she is studying at the University on the waterfront and is vegetarian, Petra's sister is Diana. Eight names came out during the reading all were 'close' connections to me and Alison !

Many of specific things came through that only I know and that I have had no need to make public on my blog or on Alison's tribute website or Face book, so could not have been looked up, besides it did not appear that Susan even had a computer. In conversation before the reading she said I could record the reading on my mobile phone, I said I don't have a mobile, she said me neither. Besides all she knew of me was my first name.

My two boys from my first marriage were mentioned, Alison was close to both, more so to my eldest, who she was teaching how to build computers. Susan at this point said that Alison was very intelligent and computer literate, she is saying programming !, that's what Alison did for a living. She is now saying she could read music, but didn't need to use it when playing the piano as she learnt new music by ear. She says she loved dancing and please play my dance music now and again and she is saying bare feet, she always had bare feet, around the house and in the garden Alison was always barefooted. She is saying video, I said yes we watched videos together, Susan said, 'she is being specific about one video, a pause, then, she says 'Ghost' Alison had bought a copy of this dvd a few months earlier, we never got to watch it together, we had both seen it before, but it is still in it's cellophane wrapper amongst all the other dvd's.

She is now saying 'a painting' Susan asked me if she painted, I said no, it was me who was the artist, she is saying canvass, I said I have used canvass to paint on in the past, but all my paintings are on panel boards. Susan said she is being very specific on canvass, with that the next word to come through, was living room. It then clicked with me, in the living room above our glass table is a large painting I painted for Alison, it is a copy of a painting by Jack Vettriano called the 'The Singing Butler' it is on canvass!

Susan said she teases me and moves it sometimes, as she knows I don't like pictures crooked, she moves other things but only slightly, so I probably don't notice. I was then told that Alison knows I have a lot of unfinished paintings that I must get completed and that I had recently been asked to do another exhibition, she said I must do it and she will help motivate me.

She mentions a ring, I said yes I know which ring she means, well she helped you find it. After Alison's passing I could not find her diamond engagement ring, I knew she only wore it occasionally as the clasps holding the diamond were a little weak, also she could not wear it with her riding gloves. I turned the house upside down looking for that ring, just could not find where she had put it. Then one day I looked at a miniature jug tucked up in the corner of the living room book case and immediately knew the ring was in the jug and sure enough there it was.

She says 'smelly candle'- every evening since Alison was taken I light a fragrant candle in front of her photo on the bookcase, so she knows I do that. Alison then said, I visited you in a dream, you will know the one ! I will visit you again this way sometime. She then indicated that she is always with me, always will be and will help guide me through my life as it is now. If I move on she will move on with me, Oh and there is no need to get a tattoo to remember me by, I have always thought of getting a remembrance tattoo.

She indicates television, Susan asked if I watched a lot of television, I said yes, more than I used too, she is doing this with her hands, Susan then held out both hands and moved her fingers as if using a game controller, Ah yes

I do online gaming every night, Susan says yes she watches you. Susan then said you have recently had problems with your computer, Alison knows it is all sorted now. Last month I had a friend come to check out the server upstairs and check if it was ok to turn off one of the computers connected to it.

She is saying the word Honey, Susan asked me if we liked honey or does the word have significance, I said yes, she called me honey, ok that's what she means by it then, Susan then said Alison has just kissed you on the cheek. Alison knows you talk to her, keep doing so, she does hear you and thank you for talking to me every night before you go to sleep and kissing my photo. I have a photo on the bedside table and always before I go to sleep I talk to her and then kiss the photo before I turn the light off .

So there you have it, far more than I ever expected, but then knowing Alison, if she was going to do something it had to be big! Susan said after the reading finished that Alison knew I was having the reading today. Apart from all the amazing things that came through, was that Alison's personality came through as well.