Father’s Appearances Seem Very Real

Dear Cynthia: My father passed away a year ago April, and lately I have been having dreams of him. In one, I was at my office and my cubicle mate said to me, “Jackie, there’s your dad,” just as she had when Dad actually visited. But in this dream, my dad was much younger. He looked about 28, and wore a brown shirt with spots on it. I never remember him having a shirt like that. He walked up to me and said, “Daughter, I have something to tell you.” That’s when I woke up.

In another dream, I was on the computer looking at a site with the number 756 on the screen. Dad said, “That’s not bad,” and I said, “I wish there was more.” Then I woke up.

I am not frightened, but in the dream it is like he never left. What does this mean?

--JACKIE ZOLLAR

Los Angeles

Dear Jackie: It sounds like you had a close relationship with your father, and since the anniversary of his passing has just gone by, it is not at all unusual to have dreams of him. You say that you are not frightened but “it feels like he never left.” I believe that this is a true statement. He hasn’t left you. He just no longer has a physical body. In the dream, your father says he has something to tell you. I believe that he has told you something: that he is still near, looking out for you, encouraging you, and that he is interested in your life. Further, that he feels young, the way you saw him in the dream.

Numbers can have many meanings in the language of dreams. If 756 doesn’t have any significance to you, then perhaps you could ask yourself what you wish there were more of, or what your father might say “That’s not bad” about. The meaning may become more apparent as time goes by.

English poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning believed that love survives the grave. In her famous poem to her husband, Robert Browning, she wrote, “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.” The poem ends like this:

I love thee with the breath

Smiles, tears of all my life!

--and, if God choose,

I shall but love thee better

after death.

Cynthia Richmond is the author of “Dream Power, How to Use Your Night Dreams to Change Your Life” (Simon & Schuster, 2000). Fax your dreams to Cynthia Richmond at (818) 783-3267 or e-mail them to in.your.dreams@worldnet.att.net. Please include your hometown and a daytime phone number. “In Your Dreams” appears every Tuesday and should be read for entertainment purposes only.