Voices from beyond
Each month, a reader writes to a loved one in the afterlife and Mandy Masters tunes in to share their reply. This month, Andrea Sandell writes to her mum, Betty
Mandy doesn’t read your letters in advance. She is given only your first name and relationship to the person you’d like to speak to in Spirit
Dear Mum
I couldn’t have asked for a better Mum or for better parents for that matter. It’s strange to think that, had you never moved next door to Dad, I might never have been born.
Back then, you were both married to other people with families of your own. But, over time, you got to know each other over the fence and accidentally fell in love.
Unable to live without each other, you took the big decision to move away together and I was born in 1973 — deaf, but otherwise healthy.
From the age of three, I was in and out of hospital, having operations on my ears to try to restore my hearing.
Bit by bit, it got better. First, hearing the muffled sounds of my classmates playing until, by senior school, I could hear like anyone else. By then, I’d missed almost two years of school, but you’d taught me how to read so that I wasn’t too behind when I returned full time.
That was you, Mum, always helping others. Like when Dad’s mum, Nanny Gwen, had breast cancer. Nan made you swear blind not to tell anyone so, for two years, you visited her each week in secret, to do her housework and shopping.
Eventually, Nan got so bad that everyone found out, but you nursed her until she died, aged 90.
What an inspiration you were. I’ll never forget all those people you helped through your work as a Spiritualist medium. We always had a steady stream of visitors wanting readings from you and Dad, who also worked as a psychic artist when he wasn’t teaching art at the local college. You’d even hold spiritual circles in the front room while I was in bed. People travelled a long way to see you as word spread about your accuracy.
We never knew where your gift came from — it was as if it just appeared on its own one day. It was amazing, but annoying, too. We’d try to arrange surprises for your birthday, such as inviting your friends, Margaret and Bernard, for a meal out at the Harvester — but you’d always ruin it!
‘What time are we meeting them?’ you’d say, before seeing the bewildered look on our faces. You knew everything!
As time went on, I became interested in the psychic world myself.
‘Can you teach me?’ I asked one day, watching you both give healing to a lady with cancer. ‘Of course,’ you smiled, gently positioning me in front of you. ‘You can practise on me.’
Closing my eyes, you taught me how to link with Spirit.
‘Ask them to work through you to help heal the person and take their pain away,��
