Bryan’s Journal of Miracles As told by his mom … March 17, 1980 - January 9, 2004

Saturday, March 5

Tonight Cris arrived home from college for spring break. It was so good to have him home! When he got up from the sofa, I noticed a quarter lying there where he had been sitting. My first thought was that Bryan had put it there to welcome him home but then it crossed my mind that it could have fallen out of Cris' pocket. When I asked him about it, though, he just laughed and said no way. He had been counting his last pennies before coming home and knew for a fact that he didn't have a dime much less a quarter in his pocket! So we knew it was Bryan welcoming his brother home.

When Amberly arrived home this evening, she had brought a little gift for me. While in the grocery store, something (Bryan) was pulling her to the card aisle in the store. As soon as she turned the corner, there was a little stuffed lion with the most adorable face staring at her. She knew she had to get it for me from Bryan and so she did. She felt sure that he wanted her to see it and bring it home for me.

Sunday, March 6

Today I was talking to Darlene and she was telling me that she has had several Bryan occurrences this past week. She said that one night, Rod was sitting outside smoking when the lamp post in front of her house started blinking on and off. Rod called her out to see it and she said the light would burn really bright and then flick off then come back on. It did this for quite a while. It finally did stop, but the bulb never burned out. They both felt it was Bryan. A few nights later, she said she was at work and realized, suddenly, that she didn't have the radio on. Since she always has the radio on while she is working, she was kind of surprised that it wasn't on and she wasn't sure why it had come suddenly into her head to turn it on. When she did, the song Fallen by Sarah McLachlan was playing. This was a song that, if you remember, Bryan had used to reach her several times in the past year. Right away she felt that he was there and that it was him who had "made" her turn on the radio. But even stranger ... about 15 minutes the SAME song played again on the SAME station! She couldn't believe her ears and even checked to be sure the station was still the same ... it was. Nothing like a confirmation! (As additional confirmation, we were having this discussion via my cell phone as I was driving home from work. While we were talking, two hawks appeared nearby ... one flew over and one was perched in a tree right beside the road as I drove past!)

Monday, March 7

Last night Ambelry had played the lottery and chose the number 317 (Bryan's birthday). I was with her at the gas station but waited in the car. Looking at the window of the service station, I noticed that the numbers 3 and 1 and 7 were all over the place in the prices of various things they were advertising ... not all in that order, but those three numbers were everywhere. When she came out, I asked if she had played 317 and she said she had. I wish I had given her more money to put down ... it hit today and she won $40! Both of us were feeling that the number would hit but, unfortunately, I didn't believe in it enough to buy a ticket. (I'm not a big lottery player). Oh well! We missed our chance to be rich ;-)

Tuesday, March 8

Over the past several weeks, I have had an odd thing happen in my car. While driving with the wipers on intermittent, they would stop working mid-swipe and even if I would turn them off and back on, they would stay in the middle of the windshield. Only when I would put them on high speed would they work. Every time it would happen, I would think Bryan was messing with me. The last time it happened, I yelled at him to stop doing that because it was dangerous. I was right next to the dealership where I bought my car, so I pulled in there to see if they could check it out. They were unable to look at it that day so we made an appointment for today. This was last week. The wipers have worked perfectly ever since. Today when I picked it up from the dealer, they said they checked it several times and could not get it to happen ... they couldn't find anything wrong with the wipers or the switch! I can't say I was surprised! I knew it was Bryan!

Another odd thing had happened a few nights ago as I was driving home from work. I kept hearing a tapping or clicking sound coming from the dashboard where I have his picture (I have a picture of Bryan mounted to my dashboard). The noise kept on all the way home and was very distinct. No matter what I did, even turning off the cd as I thought maybe it was something in the cd changer acting up, I could not isolate the sound. It continued sporadically even with the cd player off. It only happened that one night ... I've never heard it again. At the time, I thought it had to be him.

Monday, March 14

Today was a wonderful day! Bryan was around a lot and it was just awesome. At the store, Marge discovered 5 Irish "dollar bills" lying on the desk ... four 5-lb. notes and one 1-lb. note, all from the Bank of Ireland. I had never seen them before and neither had Marge or Ed. We had no idea where they came from! But they were crisp, like new Irish notes. With St. Patrick's Day coming, I couldn't help but think of Bryan. And Marge brought up the fact that he always leaves coins for us so why not bills? Anyway, they were very cool ... and near them she also found two coins. So I have now added them to Bryan's coin and money collection in his room.

Tonight, we were watching Medium on tv and I noticed the lamp post outside flickered a few times. Once when I looked at it, it turned completely off for about 3 seconds and then came back on. I told Mike and Amberly but neither of them could see it. A few moments later, the kitchen chandelier blinked off and on and we ALL saw that. And only a few moments later, on the TV show, the husband on the show was talking to his wife in the middle of the night and said, "Honey, it's 3:17 ... let's get to sleep." Amberly and I both looked at each other with our eyes big as saucers. 3:17!!!!! Bryan's birthday!!!!! How cool was that??? He really let us know he was with us tonight in a lot of ways ;-)

Wednesday, March 16

This afternoon, I went with Sherry looking for a house. Several times during the afternoon, I would notice a hawk overhead. One particular time we were waiting at a house for a realtor to get there. I spotted a hawk off in the distance and pointed it out to her. Within seconds, another hawk appeared and they both started flying toward our car. Before too long, they were directly overhead and were joined by two others! You could see their red tail feathers glowing in the sunshine! It was amazing! I told her how I often see hawks and when I do, they invariably end up flying toward and over my car, as if Bryan were guiding them to me.

Tonight Mike went out for his usual evening walk. When he came home, he had a smile on his face. He had found a coin from Bryan while he was walking and when he came back into our yard, the lamp post blinked on and off at him in greeting. We are all missing Bryan a lot right now as tomorrow is his birthday ... we are so grateful for any little sign we get from him and thankful that he gives us so many.

Tonight Sherry was out shopping and noticed a T-shirt with a blue butterfly on it across the floor. She walked over to it to look at it closer and as she was standing by it, the fluorescent light fixture overhead began to flicker and go off and on rapidly. She knew it hadn't been doing it as she approached the shirt, but it continued to do it as she browsed around the rack. When she walked away from it, the light came on bright again and continued to stay on steady the rest of the time she was in the store!

Thursday, March 17 - BRYAN'S 25TH BIRTHDAY

TODAY IS BRYAN'S 25TH BIRTHDAY! We are all thinking of him today and praying for his happiness in heaven. As expected, many things occurred today for us to let us know he was around. I'll try to briefly summarize them ...

• During the night, I was awakened by noise coming from downstairs. At first, I thought it was Moses, but he was asleep in the bed beside me. I thought it might be Bryan but didn't think any more about it and fell back asleep. In the morning, I asked Mike if he had heard it and he said yes, it had woke him up as well. I still wasn't 100% sure that it wasn't Amberly and wanted to ask her about it as well. When I did, she said she had awakened during the night but wasn't sure what woke her up. She stayed in bed for a little while and then rolled over to look at the clock. It was 3:17! When I heard the noise, it was 2:55 a.m., so it was probably that noise that woke her up as well. So we concluded between us that Bryan had definitely paid us a nocturnal visit ;-)
  
  
• This morning, my mom and I met at Darlene's for breakfast. Mom said that as she was getting ready to leave the house, the doorbell rang and the dogs started barking. She went to look out to see who was there and -- you guessed it -- there was no one!
  
  
• As I was coming back from Darlene's, I noticed that the Voice Dial on my phone was not working. There is no way to turn it on or off and I always use it. But it was not working at all. It said that I had no voice commands in there when I knew that I did. So I started by entering one voice name and when I set it, all of the Voice Dial commands came back. I knew instinctively that Bryan was messing with me and I looked at his picture on my dashboard and told him to quit messing with my phone. At that exact moment, an Impala pulled up next to me and the license plate had the numbers "184" -- our address -- in it. It was just like he was saying, "yeah, mom, I did it ... I promise I'll TRY to stop ;-) "
  
  
• This afternoon, I received an email from a gal Amberly and I met at one of John Edward's seminars in Cleveland. I just knew her message was a message from Bryan and she was kind enough to give my permission to print it:
  
  
  "Kathy,
  
  I received this from a friend this morning and couldn't help but think of you, so just had to pass it along. :)  Oh my... it just dawned on me as I was about to wish you a Happy St. Patty's Day that TODAY IS BRYAN'S BIRTHDAY!!  OK, now I have total goosebumps.  That honestly did not occur to me until I was in the midst of typing this.  Wow.
  
  I know this must be a very difficult day for you and your family, but I hope you receive continued comfort and peace from Bryan and rest assured that he is in a much better place.  May you find many coins today!!!!!
  
  Lots of hugs,
  Charissa "
• 
  
  Remember this every time you pass that little penny
  in the parking lot. I always thought that it was for Good Luck, but I love this version better:

  
  
  I found a penny today
  Just laying on the ground.
  But it's not just a penny,
  this little coin I've found.

  Found pennies come from heaven,
  that's what my Grandpa told me.
  He said Angels toss them down.
  Oh, how I loved that story.

  He said when an Angel misses you,
  they toss a penny down.
  Sometimes just to cheer you up,
  to make a smile out of your frown.

  So, don't pass by that penny,
  when you're feeling blue.
  
  It may be a penny from heaven,
  that an Angel's tossed to you.
  
  
  
  So now pass this on to the people who you care about
  and who you feel are Angels to you,
  I just did.
  
  An Angel is now watching over you.

• This evening we went to the hospital to see my father who was taken there early this morning. He is going to be all right but has an ulcer, so he will be in there for a few days. While we were visiting, the emergency alarms and strobe lights went off and created quite a ruckus for about five minutes. Somehow, I just felt it was Bryan as we were just talking about him and Sherry had just relayed the story about the light in the store last night to me (see yesterday's entry). So right while we're talking about the signs he's given us, the alarms start going off. At first people were running around and then a loud speaker came on announcing that it was only a test. Ok ... only a test?? Then why did it go on for five or more minutes? I just smiled ... and on the way out, I asked one of the desk clerks if that happened often. She said no but that -- occasionally -- they would test them but not exactly like that ;-)
  
  
• Throughout the day, many of the cars that were in front of us had numbers in the license plates that were significant ... 17 and 9 or 317 or 109 etc. Just little signs but so significant to us .....
  
  
• Amberly had gone out tonight and had several things occur letting her know Bryan was with her. In the first place she went, a waitress approached her and said, "I have something I want to give you ... you'll probably think I'm crazy, but I want you to have it." She then gave Amberly a T-shirt with a St. Patrick's Day logo and shamrock on it! She said it was an extra they had in the back and "something' told her to give it to Amber. When Amber told her about Bryan and that today was his birthday, the waitress was overcome with emotion and her eyes filled with tears. In another place where she went, upon entering she was given a hat with shamrocks on it ... and told by the woman who gave it to her that only the employees had them but she wanted to give hers to Amberly ... again, something was "making" her do it. And inside, another waitress gave her a necklace made completely of shamrocks. Sure, it was St. Paddy's Day, but they weren't giving these items to anyone else. Very much a gift from Bryan!
  
  
• This morning, we received an email from Brooke. With her permission, I wanted to print it in its entirety (thanks Brooke!):
  
  "Hi Kathy -  I wanted to write and wish you all a happy St. Paddy's and also tell you about this recurring theme that was around me for Bryans birthday. Green Beans ! I was leaving my morning class yesterday and there was this random flyer in the middle of the entryway to the building with no other flyers around it. It was a green piece of paper with a can of green beans on it and it said 'Why not green beans!' It totally made me think of Beanser, and I felt really happy! Then, I went to the library to do some work on the computer, to read stuff online. I had just bought a new novel "Crazy Woman", for a class of mine, that I don't have to start reading until after my spring break, but for some reason I pulled it out and started reading it at the computer. By the 2nd or 3rd page they had already mentioned green beans twice! I can't say green beans are a regular part of my daily life so I found it was Beanser saying hi, letting me know he knew I was thinking about it him on his b-day. Hope all is well. Love, Brooke "

Side Note: This evening, we visited Bryan's gravesite and noticed one of his friends had left a deck of poker cards there. It truly makes us happy when his friends remember him in such personal ways ... we only wish they would leave their name so that we would know who they are. If the person who left this happens to read this, will you please email me and let me know? Your act of kindness and remembrance made us very happy ... and thank you for being Bryan's friend ... (Kathy)

Our family would also like to extend a HUGE THANK YOU to all of Bryan's friends who have remembered him with cards, gifts and balloons left at his gravesite. We know Bryan sees this and is happy to know he is thought of on this special day. We can't tell you how heartwarming it is for us, his family, to know that he is loved and missed by those of you who were closest to him. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts! (The Burch Family .. Kathy, Mike, Amberly & Cris)

Monday, March 21

The neatest thing happened tonight as I was coming home from work. I was actually on the way to the chiropractor and was running late, so I took a back road shortcut. Just as I was getting ready to turn, a car from the oncoming direction turned onto the road in front of me. I was really miffed until I noticed that it was a white Impala and THEN I noticed a HUGE number 17 on the trunk of the car! It totally blew me away. I followed it all the way through the shortcut and when we came out onto the main road, I got a picture of it as it was getting ready to turn. What made it even more odd was that if you knew the area, from the direction the car was coming when it turned onto the shortcut and getting to the main road again, when it turned right, it was actually going in a circle as it was heading right back to the road it came from. There would have been no reason whatsoever for that car to be on that road and turning right at the end of it. I just know it was Bryan letting me know he was with me. Here is a picture of the car:

Also, later tonight as we were watching TV, Amberly noticed the lamp post flickering on and off and getting really bright. Again, I think Bryan just likes to let us know he's around us. Incidentally, we were watching "Medium"!

Friday, March 25

Tonight Amberly and I went to visit Darlene and Kelly to listen to a new CD that Kelly had just recorded (if you would like to listen to her beautiful voice, click here to listen).. While we were there, the chandelier in the diningroom were we were all sitting kept flickering. I finally brought it up and asked Darlene if it ever did that before and both she and Kelly said no, it had never flickered! I know Bryan always loved Kelly's singing and was just letting her know how proud of her he was that she had finally recorded a CD ;-)

Later this evening I was putting together a new fireplace screen and when it was ready, I removed the old screen from the fireplace. There lying on the hearth where the screen had been was a penny! And a few inches away was an old cigarette butt that Amber laughed at and said that for sure, that had belonged to Beans! Then I remembered finding out once that Bryan would sneak a smoke in the house -- which we definitely did not allow -- by smoking "up the chimney" so that the smoke would go up and we wouldn't find out. Naturally, I left the cigarette butt there in the fireplace among the coals ... I didn't have the heart to throw it out. It's a silly thing to keep but it's a little piece of him ...

Saturday, March 26

This afternoon in my store, I took pictures of a statue that we had sold and were about to ship out. Ed wanted pictures of it for our records, so I photographed it from several different angles. When I uploaded the pictures into my computer (it was a digital camera), the very first picture had a distinctive spirit image clearly visible in it! The photograph actually captured the spirit "in flight" as you can see the center of energy in four different spots in the trail of light. Here is a thumbnail of the photo (click on it for an enlarged picture):

(Click for Supersized Pic)

Sunday, March 27 - EASTER SUNDAY

First of all, Happy Easter to one and all! And a special thank you to whoever left the little gift for Bryan on his grave ... I know he appreciates it! ;-) ....This morning as we were going to church, Mike and I got into my car and as I was reaching for my seatbelt, my window went all the way down. As I turned to snap it in (the seatbelt), I asked Mike why he had opened my window. He immediately said he had not opened it. The controls for the windows are in the console in between the seats and he was nowhere near it ... neither was I! Nothing could have bumped it as nothing was there. I just got the happiest feeling ... it had to be Bryan wishing us a Happy Easter!

After church, Mike was watching Fox news and there was a fellow on there with a striking resemblance to Bryan and his name was Matt BEAN! I just got the biggest kick out of that. I don't know if this guy looked that much like Bryan or if it was a kind of overlay, but the message was clear to me. Just another hello from our Beans! I was able to capture a screen shot with my cell phone camera:

(Click for Supersized Pic)

Monday, March 28

Tonight we were watching the TV show "Medium" with Patricia Arquette. Last week during this show, our lamp post was flickering like crazy. And tonight, just as someone on the show said the word "ghost", our lamp post went out completely! I saw it immediately and pointed it out to both Mike and Amberly. Five minutes later, it came back on and has been on ever since. I think Bryan really likes this show!

Also, at one point in the show, the little girl on the screen had on a shirt with a butterfly on the front. Amberly and I both blurted out in unison, "Butterfly!" We both started laughing ... pretty crazy that we both said exactly the same thing at the exact same time. I normally don't comment when I see a butterfly on TV but just keep it to myself with a smile. So this was pretty funny!

Thursday, March 31

Today Amberly and I were at work together. The television set nearest her kept alternating in volume. One minute it would be fine and then, all of a sudden, the volume would go up really loud. We would have to manually turn it back down. It's a new TV and this has never occurred before. Also, we have two computers there and BOTH computers would make this strange "alert" sound ... kind of like a dinging noise like an instant message would make. It could be heard by both of us and the sounds didn't occur simultaneously ... it would happen on one computer or the other at different times throughout the day. There was never anything on either computer ... no incoming messages or alerts or anything like that. Just this strange notification sound that we couldn't trace to anything in particular. We both came to the conclusion that it has to be Bryan letting us know he's there with us.

Tonight Amberly was standing outside on the deck, just outside the door, and saw someone walking across the kitchen into the diningroom area. She came in a second later and realized that both Mike and I were still sitting in the living room and that whoever -- or whatever -- she saw could not have been either of us. No one else was there ... the cat was sleeping on the table and Sandy and Nessa were both outside. She was really freaked out ... she told both of us she had just seen a ghost and that her hair was standing up. She wasn't sure it was Bryan or not but she said it was a very distinctive human shape!

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Note:  If you have a story or experience with Bryan, please email it to me and I will add it to his journal.  These incidents have given our family great peace and joy in knowing that Bryan is still with us, if only in spirit, and will live forever in our hearts.

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