On November 24, 2001, members of my family were involved in a car accident which left several of them severely injured and my mother dead. Two days later, my sister and I had a dream on the same night where our mother suddenly appeared in our dream to let us know she was still alive. In my dream, I entered a room and discovered her sitting on a couch. It was like a waiting room and she sat there smiling like she was waiting for me. The instant I saw her, I immediately became lucid. I exclaimed, "Mom, you're not dead!" Her reply was, "I haven't told Glenn yet." I immediately awoke and was elated because I knew that I just had an after-death contact with my mother in a dream. From her reply, I understood that she was going to contact my younger brother Glenn the same way. A few days later, I phoned my sister Debbie to tell her about my dream. To our pleasant surprise, we had both had similar dreams on the same night. In her dream, upon seeing our mother, her response was the same as mine: "Oh Mom, you're not dead!" This initial contact with my mother was a factor in helping me cope with my grief. But, at the time, I didn't know that this dream would play a significant part of solving this mystery.

My mother's memorial and internment of her ashes was planned for June of 2002, about seven months after her death. A few days before the memorial, my sister spontaneously remembered Moon River as a song she used to hear as a child being raised by our mother. It was unusual in that she hadn't thought about that song since then. She couldn't remember the lyrics to the song and could only remember the tune. By coincidence, the lyrics would come to her a few days later at my mother's memorial, when Glenn sang Moon River in our mother's memory. Debbie noted the meaningful coincidence which I would learn about later after having my own meaningful coincidence with Moon River nine days later. Days after the memorial, a meaningful coincidence occurred when my father heard a news item on the car radio by Paul Harvey about the real Moon River, the inspiration for the song, near Savannah, Georgia.

As for myself, I decided not to attend my mother's memorial because I had just gotten over a bout of depression and was afraid of what attending such an emotional event would do to my mental health. However, five days later, I watched the memorial on videotape and saw my brother sing Moon River. It was the first time that I had heard that wonderful song since my childhood. Watching the memorial on videotape helped to remove me far enough from the actual event that I was able to enjoy it. Then, four days later, something happened to me that changed my life. I was watching TV alone in my room one night when I suddenly and strongly felt her presence in my room. None of my five senses were involved. It was completely a spiritual and emotional reunion with my mother's spirit which lasted around an hour. I felt her presence and love magnified hundreds of times within me. She filled the whole room and my heart with a level of love and happiness that I have never experienced before or since. She came to visit me and she brought heaven with her. Although it was a reunion, I knew it was also a goodbye - until we meet again. If you haven't done so already, you can read the full account of my after-death visitation with my mother.

The very next morning, only hours after my visitation with my mother, I awoke still ecstatic about my mother's visit. I got out of bed and turned on the TV as I sometimes do. Then, it seems that a real miracle happened. By pure coincidence, when I turned on the TV, an old movie came on and immediately began to play the song Moon River from the very beginning. I was completely stunned. Time stood still for a moment it seemed. It was a sign from heaven. I knew it was a physical validation of a spiritual experience I had only hours ago. It was synchronicity - a very meaningful coincidence of metaphysical proportions. It was measurable circumstantial evidence of my mother's continued existence. To me, it was the equivalent of having an hour-long lucid dream with my mother and then waking up and discovering she left her purse there.

Later, I calculated the odds of turning on a TV at random and having Moon River begin playing on it. The odds are over 1 in a 18 billion. It was at this point that I began documenting these unusual meaningful coincidences happening in our family. I also shared this experience with the rest of the family. At this time, I learned about the other Moon River coincidences that happened at the time of the memorial by my sister and father. Then, there were no unusual meaningful Moon River coincidences reported for about a year and a half. I assumed that it was over. I was wrong.

On November 5, 2003, I published this story on my website - the events around the time of my mother's memorial. November is the anniversary month of my mother's death. November 24th is the day of the second anniversary of her death. I decided I was going make her anniversary special by having our experience on my website and letting everyone know about it. After I had the pages up on the internet, I emailed my family to let them know about it. The next day, I received a reply from Glenn telling me about a new Moon River coincidence that had just happened to him. The night before he received my email, he and his wife were watching a cable TV program called "Sex and the City." On that episode, the show highlighted the song Moon River. Now, at this point in time, hearing Moon River on TV is a coincidence - a rare sighting - but it was not synchronicity. The synchronicity came the following morning when he checked his email and read my message about our memorial Moon River coincidences being on my website. Then, he went to my website and read all about them. This was tremendous synchronicity for him at the time. And it was synchronicity for me as well. It made me begin to suspect that something wonderful was going to happen again.

November 24th passed on a quiet and reflective note for me. I had been working the whole month on this story for my website, my newsletter, and my family. The next day, November 25th, I discovered that I needed some information from Debbie about the memorial coincidences. I phoned her up and she gave me the information I needed to know. Then, she told me that an A&E Biography of Andy Williams was on cable TV on the anniversary day of our mother's death. Andy Williams sang his signature song - Moon River. And it was a coincidence that she even happened to see it. And it was a coincidence that I even phoned her to begin with. I was in complete shock and awe. I immediately phoned my twin brother Steve to tell him about it. By coincidence, he told me that only hours before I called, his wife Sandy was shopping for music CDs in a music store. She selected one of the CDs on the shelf to see who the artist was. It was a new CD by Barbara Streisand. Out of curiosity, she looked on the back of it to see the songs listed. By coincidence, she saw that Moon River was listed on it.

After talking with Steve, I was so excited, I told my father that I felt like a man sitting on a rocket ready to be shot into space. The same kind of Moon River coincidences which occurred around the time of my mother's memorial were now happening again - only this time on the second anniversary of her death. It felt like pieces of a giant puzzle were finally coming together and there was only one piece to the puzzle missing and I knew Glenn had it. I already knew it was an old special song of our family's and especially our mother's. But now, with another round of Moon River synchronicity, it seemed as though there was something more I needed to know about Moon River which was missing in this puzzle. Moon River seems to be more meaningful than I ever thought. And there were only two things of importance that I didn't know about Moon River that I believed would solve it.

A few days after our mother's death, Glenn had a favorite childhood memory of her that was helping him with his grief. It was a memory of him as a child sitting together with our mother on the living room couch. She would have her arm around him and together they would sing Moon River. This childhood memory has always stayed with Glenn his whole life. Music has always been a very important part of his life. Music has always been an outlet for him to express his emotions. He developed a very beautiful voice for song at an early age. In high school, he won the state championship title as a vocalist. He eventually went on to become a professional stage performer, actor and director. Our mother was very proud of him and his talent. When she died, Glenn would find emotional release by singing Moon River out loud to himself, at work, in the car, and everywhere. He would sing Moon River out loud to our mother to feel her presence and ease his grief. It was only a few days after our mother died, that he decided he would sing Moon River at her memorial. This fond memory of singing Moon River with her as a child, combined with the tragic loss of our mother, rekindled a love for the music he used to with our mother. He bought an entire music collection of Andy Williams songs so that he could hear all those beautiful childhood songs again - but especially Moon River - the song he used to sing as a child with our mother while sitting together on the living room couch in our childhood home in Monrovia, California.

A Synchronistic Thought Between My Brother and I

When I was finished reading Glenn's email, I could easily picture him in my mind as a child in my mother's arms sitting on the living room couch on Ivy Street singing Moon River with her gently rocking him. Now, all the pieces of the puzzle were in place and the connection was made. Here it is: