Saturday night I had a dream that I was standing on the parking lot of a car dealership, waiting for my brother, while he was reading the sticker on a car he was interested in buying. I looked down the street and saw my friend Angela walking up toward me, waving at me, so I ran down the street to meet her.

In real life, Angela has been dead for more than 10 years and if I tried to run like that I’d get about two feet before I fell over. But that’s the nice thing about dreams. I feel very blessed that I do have dreams that Angie “comes to visit me” – sometimes once or twice a year, though sometimes longer periods of time go by. In my dreams she is never any older. She has gone on to “other things” which, I am given to understand, are beyond my level of comprehension in our present circumstances. The afterlife, at least for Angela, is a busy place.....

“Oh, my God, I’m so glad to see you again! I haven’t seen you since I was living on Main St!” I said when I reached her.

“I came to tell you that you really need to do something about your clothes.” She said. She was like that, very matter of fact.

I looked down and checked my shoes for holes. She used to be really horrified by the condition of my shoes when we were young, because I often wore mine until they literally fell apart. Then I said, “I can’t believe you came all the way from beyond the grave just to tell me something like that.”

She rolled her eyes and smiled, “It TAKES somebody coming from beyond the grave to get you to buy yourself anything new! I mean, half of what you have doesn’t fit you and the other half came from the Goodwill and has weird stains on it.”

“Well, come with me. Help me pick something out.”

She glanced at her watch, smiled again and shook her head, “I can’t. I’ve got to get out of here, I’ve got something else I have to do. Have The Hub take you to Columbia Mall, though, that’s a good place. I’ll be back soon. I’m not far away, you know.”

And I woke up.

At breakfast, I told The Hub my dream. “That sounds exactly like something that she would say!” he laughed, “and besides, she’s right.”

So we went to Columbia mall. I bought two pairs of slacks and five tops. I spent $130, which The Hub was quick to point out, some people would spend on one pair of shoes.

If I ever spent $130 on a pair of shoes, you can bet I’d wear them until the soles fell off.