They Still Live

Admin
Aug 19, 2016
3 min read

They Still Live

By Tara Sutphen

They still live, just not in our world. The dead that is. So I have this little story to tell you. I’ve been in Anchorage, Alaska where I grew up, visiting my relatives, friends and working for non-profit “Awakening Spiritual Unity”, for which I’m President. Justin Haughn hasn’t been to Anchorage before and he’s come up to work at Elmendorf Air Force base for the Blue Angel Air show. He’s married to Christina Chandler-Haughn, one of my amazing psychic students who I call ‘baby mystic’. Justin and I meet in downtown Anchorage. I’ve been running errands and trying to catch up with some of my cousins. I’m at a market festival, and I show him my Christmas card photo! And we start taking photos posing by a catering place selling salmon quesadillas and petting a 140lb Malamute.

I ask Justin if we can stop to see a few of my dead relatives in the graveyard. I’ve been meaning to stop by. My mom has texted me where they are earlier in the week, but it’s all of 3 sentences of directions. The graveyard is massive, there is no one in the office. I locate a few who I’m looking for, as they are buried in the Masonic and Moose sections. Justin and I are reading each head stone. Time consuming and fascinating as some of the graves date back to 1923. I’m still driving around the cemetery, Justin is such a great sport as I keep stopping and running out into the middle of the stones, still looking for 2 relatives grave by grave. We’re now in the Catholic section, no real reason just feeling compelled. When all of a sudden I make a huge hyena wail, (poor Justin)…one of my best friend’s graves stares at me. She wasn’t even Catholic, she was Mormon. I assumed when she died she’d been cremated. I didn’t know. Linda Marie Heaton, a lovely headstone with her photo.

Justin and I thought it remarkable that she wanted me to stop by and see her out of probably 2,000+ graves. And he’s liking the fact he’s on the adventure when I’m having these bizarre psychic experiences. He can’t wait to tell his wife.

I take him to “Gwennie’s” in Spenard, an old Alaska cafe and we start sharing the photos we’ve taken. I mention how my reflection is in Linda’s headstone, we gasp at the second photo. I wanted Justin to capture the saying on Linda’s grave and unintentionally the reflection of my body is on her head. I haven’t downloaded the photos on to the computer yet. There could be other phenomena and surreal qualities.

After Gwennie’s, I bring Justin to the Lake house where Nadine gives him raspberry jam she’s made from our harvest. It’s 9:15pm but I ask Justin if he’s game to go to a glacier? So we decide to drive the few hours to Portage Glacier. Our together time has to be at hyper speed, I have to get him back on base sometime tonight! The outing will be fun as we’ve been invited to relatives houses and also to help Tanya sparkle bead bandanas for Sturgis. But I’m not thinking that’s what Justin would like and it’s still light out, men really like the magnificence of real Alaska, so we take off toward the wilderness. I have to show him some real Alaska, especially after subjecting him to the graveyard. We make it to Portage where the midnight sun is just beginning to go down. Jumping out of the car, we take a bunch of photos of icebergs and we try to drive further but the road to Whittier is closed so we take it as a cue to race back to Anchorage and the Air Force Base. We talk about goals and the future along the way. Justin thanks me for taking him to the graveyard. We’re still so amazed my friend called after me not to miss her grave. She was a gorgeous woman who would read “Jonathan Livingston Seagull” aloud to me while we cooked and sat around. She has a beautiful daughter Regina. Friends are forever… I send her waves of Great Love and thank her for gracing my life.