Story of the Week June 19, 2009, Dimes from Heaven
Hello, friends. Over the past several years, we’ve shared stories about “pennies from heaven.” Many of us can’t help but believe that pennies are little hugs from our angels. Do you remember the young soldier who went to Iraq, and found pennies in the sand there throughout his tour of duty? (The soldiers all turn in their American coins when they reach Irag, so why would pennies be lying around?
Well, Jo Pabon writes from LaGrange, Illinois to offer another story, unique in its own way (as they all are).
Jo’s mother, Harriet Cimock, grew up in Corning, a small town in southwest Iowa. She was a farm wife and helpmate, working alongside her husband and raising five children. Harriet had many interests, but she loved collecting (especially butterflies) and shopping garage sales. She spent a lot of time making rosaries and baby blankets, to give to those who needed them.
In April 2007, Harriet had a routine mammogram, and since her husband had had shingles recently, she took the vaccine too. Shortly afterwards, she developed a rash on her chest. Her doctor diagnosed it as shingles—she was apparently one of the few who got the illness from the shot. “Mom was not a complainer,” says Jo, “but two months later, she still had the spots, and was distracted by them.” Harriet had a biopsy, and the family was stunned at the result. She did not have shingles; she had Inflammatory Breast Cancer, an especially quick-spreading type. Chemotherapy started immediately.
Back in Illinois, as Jo and her sisters struggled to handle their fear, a strange situation developed. Jo began finding dimes. “Not quarters, nickels or pennies, but dimes. Dimes in unusual places-—peeking out from under a baseboard, in the back of a dusty broom closet,in the shower! It became almost comical.” Jo told her good friend Vicki about it, and Vicki started finding dimes too. “We joked about where we had found them, and somehow the dime would turn the day into a good one.”
In October Jo went to Iowa to be with her mother. Harriet was not doing well. No amount of chemo seemed to stem the rapidly spreading cancer, but she kept her hopeful attitude. One day Jo accompanied Harriet to chemotherapy, and after she stood up from the chair, they both saw it where she had been sitting—a dime. When Jo returned home, the dime discoveries continued—in a forgotten coat pocket, on the seat of a taxi, a store parking lot. Surely the law of averages would have intruded by now—how could people find so many coins, and why were they all dimes? But they were. Jo couldn’t help but wonder what the purpose of it was. She longed to turn it all into a “sign,” something to reassure her that her mother would have many healthy years ahead. But Harriet’s decline continued. She died just five months after her diagnosis.
“Her service at their country church was beautiful,” Jo says. “She had planned everything in advance, from the music to her obituary, and her memorial was filled with butterflies. Afterwards, we were taking funeral flowers back to the house, and I lifted up a big vase. Under it was—a dime.” Back at the house, the family received another surprise. The siblings began to sort through Harriet’s treasure trove of garage sale finds, and Jo discovered a clear plastic piggy bank. It was stuffed to the top, with dimes. “My brother mentioned that he had given my mom a bank several years earlier and he went to the bedroom to find it,” Jo says. “He returned and turned it over on the table top. We could not believe our eyes as the dimes started pouring out!”
Jo returned home to Illinois trying to accept the suddenness of this great loss. Her mother had lived a healthy life—-why her? Strangely, the only consolation the family could muster was the fact that they were now all finding dimes. The stories made them laugh.
One day Jo was searching for breast cancer awareness items on the internet. She came across a picture of a pink breast cancer pin. Next to it in the photo was a dime! The ad said the dime was in the picture to show the size of the pin. “That was a light bulb moment for me,” Jo says. “It was not right that we would save all our dimes, and sit around and look at the pile. We were to pass them on for a good cause, and what better cause than breast cancer research and awareness?”
Today Jo and her family have a special jar in the kitchen, and her family knows just where to put the dimes that they continue to find. (Her nine-year-old son even cashed in his $25 savings account, converted the money to dimes and added them to the jar.) Their friends save too. When the jar gets big enough, they change the dimes into a check and send it to Inflammatory Breast Cancer Research Foundation, in memory of Harriet.
“I have two beautiful reminders of my mom,” Jo says, “every time I see a butterfly and every time I find a dime. (Or should I say - a dime finds me?!)” She knows there will be more coming their way. Thanks, Mom!
If you would like to find out more about IBCRF, check the website at http://www.ibcresearch.org/
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Comments
My son, Brandon, died at the age of 29 on 3/6/08. I was devastated…I had found him dead in his apartment. I have three other children..aged 26,28,and 31 at the time. Brandon would have turned 30 on April 7.. and now be 31. Anyway, for months I found dimes everywhere. At Arbie’s on the ground, on the boardwalk at the beach, inside friends’ trunks of their cars, inside the breakroom at the hospital I work at, on top of patient’s night stands, in the parking lot,…just anywhere. Word got out and then they began showing up on top of his grave. I know that some of his friends placed them on top of the grave. Of the eight that were there, only one friend has fessed up. Eventually, I started finding pennies and dimes together. Now, I don’t find as many dimes-but I find pennies. It was always and is always a true sign from Brandon when I find them. Often, interestingly enough, my daughter is with me when I find them…She is the one that may see them first!
I wanted to share my dime story to let everyone know how real this is… My mother passed away in Feb. 2008, just shy of her 80th birthday. She was a beautiful person who lived a very rich and full life. We are a Catholic family and on the evening of her Rosary, my little girl,who was 7yrs old at the time, wanted me to put a note she had written to my mother in her casket, so that it would go to heaven with her. I placed the note in with my mother and at the end of the Rosary, my brother asked if he could see the sweet note and then he would place it back. I agreed. The next morning when meeting my brother, he asked me if I had placed a dime along with the note and I told him no. He informed me that when placing the note back he ran his hand down the side of her casket and came across a dime so he just left it in assuming I had placed it there. The day of my mother’s funeral mass, several of her belongings were returned to us including her personal make up bag that had been used for her services. When my brother and I opened her makeup bag there was the dime! I told him then that I felt like this would be mom’s way of communicating with us. Boy was I right!! Two nights after her burial, my brother called and told me about his first dime encounter. That evening he was reading to his youngest daughter and when he went to place the book back on the shelf,a dime fell into his lap. He immediately got up and searched for any other change on the shelf and could not find any. He then placed a phone call to me and said “Sis I think you were right about the dime”".. We began sharing our story with the rest of our family members and then they too began experiencing the most amazing dime encounters. My entire family has the most incredibal dimes stories and we have recieved them consistantly ever since my mother’s passing. We know these are messages straight from heaven letting us know she is wathing over us!
Grief is not about forgetting the person who has died, but finding ways to remember them. Remembering brings healing.
Honor your loved one’s life and remember…. for me, coins, especially “pennies” are reminders of those angels who have gone before us but who are closer to us now than we realize. Happy Guardian Angels day to all those angels watching over us and our loved ones near and far. Blessings
Comment by Yvonne Montano on October 20, 2009 @ 8:43 pm
My Brother past away September 28 2009. The very next day my husband Mike has been finding dimes, 4 in his pocket, 1 one the floor. And the day we laid him to rest, Mike & I drove to my mom’s house to take some food out of the oven before everyone got there. he thought this was very interesting he found another dime this time right when he opened the truck door laying on the ground was a plastic play money coin Yes it was a dime so he picked it up and kept it. It left him wondering why he was finding dimes. On Sunday a few weeks past he found 1 dime lying in a circle in the foyer in our church now that made him wonder even more. He is an usher for our church so when he helped with the collection he was zipping up the bag and what do you know I single dime fell out more bizarre right. Ok so he had me find out the meaning of dimes he wanted to know why he’s been finding dimes everywhere! OK Today is 2 weeks since my brother died. I searched the internet to find the meaning of dimes and a web site came up Dimes from heaven I watched a video and about dimes from heaven, then I clicked this web page Joan Wester Anderson, Saw the first story about dimes from Heaven, It caught my eye because 1 week before he died we had dinner @ my mom’s he was admiring Mike on how much weight he lost he brought our wedding Picture to show him, Ok well this story makes so much sense because It’s the story of the week (June 19), well Mike & I were married (June 19th), And this story Wrote by Jo Pabon Writes from Lagrange, Illinois following me so far Ok My brothers name is Richard (LaGrange)So we believe this is his way letting Mike & I know he’s a Angel sending his message down from heaven. We can pray for him let him go be with his brother & other relatives in the arms of God. Richard thank You So much for this message Thank you thank you We Love you. Yvonne &
This story really blessed me. Last week I was struggling with discouragement and felt completly overwhelmed one morning. I believed I am called by God to write but have been stuck in a writer’s block rut for quite a while. Just as I was to turn on the computer I found a dime. For about two days I kept it by the computer. Then I placed it in a container that I save change to help animals in need. It was not to this morning when I read your story that I realised that God had given me a sign, which was the dime and an answer to many prayers. Today, I have confidence and much inspiration to share through writing. Your story has given me encouragement to complete my book and raise money to help animals in need. Thankyou and God bless you.
Kathy Mikshenas